UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA   SAN  DIEGO 


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UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA   SAN  DIEGO 


3  1822  02461  9447 


Social  Sciences  &  Humanities  Library 

University  of  California,  San  Diego 
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ALCOHOL   AND 
SOCIETY 


BY 


JOHN    KOREN 


NEW  YORK 

HENRY   HOLT  AND  COMPANY 

1916 


Copyright,  1915,  1916 

BY 

THE  ATLANTIC  MONTHLY  COMPANY 


COPYBIOHT,   1916 
BY 

HENRY  HOLT  AND  COMPANY 


PublUIud  May,  1916 


PREFACE 

Since  the  memorable  work  of  the  Committee  of 
Fifty  was  published  there  has  been  little  discussion 
of  the  liquor  problem  except  from  the  propagandist 
standpoint ;  and  new  studies  of  a  general  nature  have 
not  been  undertaken.  Evidence  against  alcohol  is 
diligently  being  sought,  not  to  enrich  our  knowledge 
but  to  prove  an  assumption.  Searchers  after  fact 
are  chided  for  failing  to  take  it  for  granted  that  every 
depth  of  the  drink  problem  has  been  explored  and 
thoroughly  mapped,  and  for  venturing  to  question 
the  wisdom  and  sufficiency  of  current  remedial 
proposals. 

Are  we  to  believe  that  science  has  said  the  final 
word  about  alcohol?  Is  the  solution  offered  by  pro- 
hibitionists sufficient  and  are  their  methods  sound.'' 
May  there  not  be  a  better  approach  to  the  temperance 
ideal  than  through  coercion?  These  questions, 
among  others,  the  author  seeks  to  answer.  If  the 
original  articles  in  The  Atlantic  upon  which  the  book 
is  based  awakened  much  resentment  among  prohibi- 
tion enthusiasts,  they  were  also  accorded  an  attention 
which  encourages  the  author  to  give  them  a  more 
permanent  and  much  enlarged  form. 

Of  recent  years  so  much  ignorant  assumption, 
prejudice,  and  fanaticism  have  obscured  the  real  issues 


iv  PREFACE 

in  temperance  reform  that  relentless  criticism  has 
become  a  necessity.  One  naturally  shrinks  from  the 
obligation  of  giving  a  hurt  by  writing  unpalatable 
truths ;  but  there  can  be  no  apology  for  them.  The 
wrath  that  may  descend  upon  the  writer  is  harmless 
so  long  as  his  utterances  are  not  proved  false. 

The  author  gratefully  acknowledges  his  great  in- 
debtedness to  recent  publications  on  the  alcohol 
problem  from  which  he  has  drawn  both  inspiration 
and  information  and  which  he  has  used  freely.  Fore- 
most among  these  are  the  works  of  the  Committee 
of  the  Swedish  Medical  Society,  of  the  Norwegian 
Alcohol  Commission,  and  the  monumental  studies  by 
Dr.  Ulrik  Quensel.  With  these  authorities  on  the 
many  phases  of  the  drink  question  and  true  tem- 
perance reform  the  author  takes  his  stand,  but  he 
is  willing  always  to  modify  his  views  in  the  light 
of  new  knowledge. 

J.  K. 
March,  1916. 


CONTENTS 

OaiFTSB 

FAQX 

Preface    . 

V 

I     Social  Aspects  op  Drink     . 

1 

1. 

Introductory         .         .         .        . 

1 

2. 

Alcohol  as  Nutrition   . 

6 

3. 

Effects    of    Small    Quantities    o 

f 

Alcohol 

7 

4. 

Alcohol  and  Degeneracy 

18 

5. 

Alcohol  and  Insanity   , 

23 

6. 

Alcoholism  and  Disease 

30 

7. 

Alcohol  and  Economic  Distress 

42 

8. 

Alcohol  and  Crime 

49 

9. 

The  Extent  of  Inebriety 

56 

10. 

Unknown  Factors  in  Alcoholisn 

1       60 

II     Drink  Reform  in  the  United  States  68 

1.  Historical 68 

2.  Present  Conditions        ...  76 

3.  Our  Experiments  in  Prohibition  86 

4.  National  Prohibition    ...  94 

III     Government  and  Prohibition      .        .  Ill 

1.  Introductory  .         .         .         .111 

2.  Anti-Saloon  League      .        .        .  119 

3.  Prohibition  Attitude  toward  Ad- 

ministration      .        .....  128 

V 


vi                                  CONTENTS 

CHAFTER                                                                                                                                                   PAGK 

IV     Drink  Reform  in  Foreign  Countries     141 

1. 

Russia  and  Finland 

.      142 

2. 

France            .... 

.      155 

3. 

Great  Britain 

.      162 

4. 
5. 
6. 

7. 
8. 

Germany         .... 

Italy 

Austria-Hungary 

Belgium           .... 

Commonwealth  of  Australia 

.      168 
.      171 
.      172 
.      173 

174 

9. 

Canada           .        . 

179 

10. 

Denmark         .... 

.      181 

11. 

Holland           .... 

.      183 

12. 

Iceland 

.      184 

13. 

Switzerland    .... 

.     186 

14. 

Norway  and   Sweden    . 

187 

y     Constructive  Temperance  Reform 

.     206 

1. 

Evolution   of   the    Saloon 

.     206 

2. 

Local   Option 

211 

3. 

Taxation  of  Alcohol    . 

222 

4. 

High  License  and  Restriction 

225 

5. 
6. 

Licensing  Authorities   . 
Essentials  of  Progressive  Reforn 

229 
1     232 

Appendix 

253 

Index 

265 

ALCOHOL  AND  SOCIETY 


ALCOHOL  AND  SOCIETY 

CHAPTER  I 
SOCIAL  ASPECTS  OF  DRINX 

I 

INTEODUCTOET 

Alcohol  is  a  world-old  and  well-nigh  universal 
article  of  consumption.  For  unnumbered  centuries 
peoples  in  far-apart  countries  have  habitually  used 
a  variety  of  alcoholic  beverages  made  from  grain, 
fruit  or  milk  {Tcoumyss,  kefir).  When  the  art  of  dis- 
tillation had  been  mastered  and  finally  made  a  com- 
mercial venture,  spirits  of  all  kinds  became  generally 
available,  and,  through  the  improved  channels  of 
transportation,  reached  the  uttermost  confines  of  the 
globe.  At  the  present  time,  according  to  Dr.  Hart- 
wich,  the  only  "  alcohol-free  "  races  are  certain  ab- 
original remnants  in  Ceylon,  Malacca,  and  among 
the  Indians  of  South  America. 

Contrary  to  popular  belief,  the  Muhammadans 
are  not  free  from  the  dangers  of  alcoholism.  Theo- 
retically, all  consistent  Islamites  are  abstainers,  but 
in  practice  they  are  not  so.     Large  sections  of  the 


£  SOCIAL  ASPECTS  OF  DRINK 

population  of  India,  especially  the  Muhammadan, 
are  given  to  the  abuse  of  spirits.  The  Turks  of  Asia 
Minor  are  held  to  be  fairly  sober;  also  the  Tuaregs 
of  the  innermost  recesses  of  the  Sahara.  Elsewhere 
throughout  the  Muhammadan  world  drunkenness 
has  become  common;  for  instance,  in  Egypt,  Cy- 
renaica  and  the  Tripolitaine ;  Tunis,  Algeria,  and 
Morocco;  also  in  Persia  and  Syria. 

The  consciousness  of  dangers  (chiefly  individual) 
from  the  intemperate  use  of  alcohol  is  also  of  great 
antiquity.  Even  the  prohibition  theory  is  of  ripe 
age,  for  Muhammad  was  its  first,  and  for  a  time, 
eff'ective  prophet;  but  it  remained  for  modern  times 
to  discover  in  the  abuse  of  alcohol  a  social-hygienic 
problem  of  the  first  magnitude.  Great  wisdom  be- 
yond this  we  have  not  yet  attained. 

Our  temperance  preaching  has  not  wholly  emerged 
from  the  vituperative  stage.  It  is  still  the  all- 
absorbing  occupation  of  the  reformer  to  denounce 
the  wickedness  and  nefarious  schemes  of  the  "  trade." 
But  it  is  not  helpful,  for  vituperation  is  a  form,  not 
of  communicating  truth,  but  of  self-indulgence.  It 
is  a  dull  weapon  of  attack,  and  bars  the  way  to  an 
objective  and  passionless  consideration,  without 
which  progress  halts.  To  a  great  extent,  even  the  so- 
called  "  alcohology  "  of  the  latter  decades  savors  of 
invective  and  extravagant  rhetoric.  But,  more  im- 
portant, it  astounds  the  critical  investigator  by  the 
crudity  of  its  methods  of  investigation,  the  triviality 
of  much  of  its  subject-matter,  the  glaring  methodo- 


INTRODUCTORY  3 

logical  defects,  and  the  consequent  questionableness 
of  its  general  conclusions.  But  if  evident  untruths 
underlie  some  of  the  fundamental  conceptions  of  the 
present-day  systems  of  temperance  doctrine,  the  pro- 
tagonists of  the  status  qiLO  in  liquor  legislation  are 
equally  unscientific  and  guilty  of  untruths  when  they 
prate  about  the  usefulness  of  alcohol  in  all  its  forms, 
shutting  their  eyes  almost  wilfully  to  its  menaces. 
Like  the  common  run  of  alcohol  literature,  the 
practical  temperance  policies  insisted  upon  are  not 
based  on  real  knowledge  won  through  methodical  ob- 
servation and  intensive  study  of  the  social  aspects 
of  the  drink  question.  Indeed,  our  fact  basis  is  amaz- 
ingly weak.  We  do  not  know  definitely  the  extent 
to  which  alcohol  is  abused  within  any  state  or  any  of 
its  civil  subdivisions,  such  as  city,  village,  or  rural 
district.  We  have  no  clear  conception  of  the  char- 
acteristics of  the  different  types  of  alcoholic  persons ; 
we  have  not  penetrated  their  lives ;  the  kind  and 
amount  of  injury  they  do  themselves  and  others  are 
known  only  in  the  most  general  way  and  have  not  been 
ascertained  in  casu.  The  development  of  alcoholism 
in  the  individual,  and  the  circumstances  of  an  indi- 
vidual or  social  character  that  give  rise  to  and 
perpetuate  it,  have  not  been  studied.  We  de- 
claim about  the  use  of  alcohol  as  a  social  disease,  yet 
are  curiously  ignorant  of  its  deeper-lying  causes, 
its  manifestations  and  progression.  There  is  no  com- 
petent social  organ  delegated  to  observe  the  ravages 
of  this  disease  and  lay  bare  the  many-sided  conditions 


4  SOCIAL  ASPECTS  OF  DRINK 

that  determine  it.  In  fact,  we  lack  the  expertness 
needed  in  devising  new  measures  of  protection,  as 
well  as  in  tracing  the  effect  against  the  drink  evil  of 
those  we  have  adopted. 

Yet  the  temperance  question  touches  various 
phases  of  community  life  which  can  be  made  the 
object  of  exact  investigation.  In  this  field,  as  else- 
where, legislation  must  be  preceded  by  accurate  in- 
formation, not  only  concerning  social  phenomena — 
the  bad  conditions  of  life — which  instigate  the  reform 
work,  but  also  about  the  circumstances  that  produce 
the  phenomena.  Unless  such  information  is  gained, 
all  proposals  for  reform  are  likely  to  become  one- 
sided and  involve  the  danger  that,  in  endeavoring  to 
suppress  an  evident  evil,  we  may  originate  others 
less  easily  discovered  and  perhaps  more  threatening. 

Of  course,  the  present  directors  of  the  temperance 
movement  in  our  country  will  not  accept  this  plea; 
for  theirs  is  the  enviable  confidence  of  not  needing  to 
learn.  Are  not  the  children  of  our  forty-eight  states 
taught  the  precise  physiological  effects  of  alcohol  in 
small  and  larger  doses,  although  the  scientist  may 
still  grope  for  the  truth.''  Are  not  our  towns  and 
highways  adorned  with  "  posters  "  stating  in  exact 
percentages  the  human  miseries  that  flow  from  intem- 
perance? And  are  there  not  traveling  exhibits  that 
have  "  scientifically "  charted  every  social  relation 
into  which  alcohol  enters,  so  that  one  may  take  in  at 
a  diagrammatic-statistical  glance  any  fact — from  the 
effect  of  one  glass  of  beer  upon  a  person's  industrial 


INTRODUCTORY  5 

efficiency  to  the  hereditary  influence  of  parental  al- 
coholism upon  the  off^spring?  The  finality  of  the 
case  against  alcohol  seems  indubitable  since  we  are 
assured,  under  congressional  frank,  that  the  regis- 
tered mortality  due  in  some  way  to  alcoholism  equals 
the  total  registered  mortality  of  all  but  infants  for 
the  whole  country !  Although  the  temperance  ques- 
tion is  fundamentally  a  problem  in  adjusting  social 
conditions,  nevertheless  physiology,  medicine,  and 
statistics  are  called  upon,  not  merely  as  witnesses  but 
as  judges  who  have  rendered  the  unalterable  verdict 
against  alcohol. 

In  Europe,  far-seeing  temperance  advocates  realize 
the  instability  of  the  "  scientific  "  foundation  upon 
which  it  has  been  sought  to  rear  the  dogma  of  univer- 
sal prohibition.  But  the  leaders  in  this  country  con- 
tinue to  misplace  emphasis  upon  statements  selected 
from  the  teachings  of  physiologists,  medical  prac- 
titioners, and  investigators,  as  well  as  upon  inferences 
from  social  statistics.  This  appeal  to  authority  car- 
ries unreasonable  weight  with  the  general  public ;  for 
as  a  people  we  are  singularly  prone  to  accept  general- 
izations dressed  up  in  a  quasi-scientific  garb,  when 
they  are  given  repeated  currency  by  that  portion  of 
the  press  whose  chief  function  it  is  to  spread  inac- 
curacies. Probably  Dr.  Karl  Pearson  goes  too  far 
in  saying,  "  We  found  that  the  whole  '  scientific ' 
basis  of  the  movement  [temperance]  was  worthless." 
Physiology  and  medicine  are  invaluable  allies  in  the 
fight  against  alcoholism,  but  not  as  final  arbiters  of 


6       SOCIAL  ASPECTS  OF  DRINK 

legislative  policies.  Nor  does  the  state  of  our  knowl- 
edge about  the  relations  of  social  ailments  to  drink 
enable  us  to  prescribe  a  specific.  But  reformers  as- 
sume generally  that  further  pursuit  of  knowledge  is 
superfluous;  and  it  is  therefore  necessary  to  outline 
the  more  important  "  findings  "  about  alcohol  result- 
ing from  recent  authoritative  investigations. 


ALCOHOI.   AS    NUTEITION 

From  the  social  point  of  view,  the  dispute  as  to 
whether  alcohol  is  a  nutritious  substance  has  only  an 
academic  interest  and  does  not  cover  a  real  issue. 
One  must  accept  it  as  incontestable  that,  as  alcohol 
is  burned  up  in  the  body,  it  saves  carbohydrates,  fat, 
and  albumen,  and  is  therefore  to  be  reckoned  among 
the  nutritive  substances.  Dr.  A.  Forel,  the  eminent 
Swiss  temperance  leader,  admits  this,  but  suggests 
that  alcohol  be  designated  as  a  "  poisonous  nutri- 
ment," whatever  that  may  mean.  The  fact  that  alco- 
hol in  large  quantities  has  a  toxic  effect  does  not 
detract  from  its  position  as  a  nutriment  in  the  physio- 
logical view.  Yet  to  advocate  alcohol  as  an  article 
of  consumption  for  the  sake  of  its  food-value  is  clearly 
inadmissible.  In  its  most  wholesome  form,  in  pure 
beers,  it  is  a  poor  substitute  for  other  food.  Alcohol 
does  not  sound  its  own  warning  against  use  in  unduly 
large  quantities  by  producing  that  sense  of  repletion 
which  is  characteristic  of  ordinary  foods.     Simply 


EFFECTS  OF  SMALL  QUANTITIES         7 

the  question  of  cost  determines  the  unwisdom  of  re- 
garding alcohol  in  any  form  as  a  food,  unless  it  be 
in  very  special  cases  under  medical  direction. 

in 

THE  EFFECTS  OF  SMALL  QUANTITIES  OF  ALCOHOL 

In  recent  years  numerous  experiments  have  been 
made  to  ascertain  the  precise  effects  upon  the  human 
organism  of  small  quantities  of  alcohol.  There  is  no 
scientific  contention  about  the  effects  of  large  quanti- 
ties, for  the  teachings  of  physiology  merely  reinforce 
what  observation  and  experience  have  taught,  namely, 
that  alcohol  consumed  in  large  quantities  operates  as 
a  dangerous  poison.  Theoretically,  it  is  hardly  open 
to  dispute  that  relatively  very  small  quantities  of 
alcohol,  such,  for  instance,  as  are  found  in  fresh  bread, 
do  not  harm  the  human  body.  The  important  ques- 
tion is  whether  a  more  or  less  habitual  use  of  mod- 
erate quantities  of  alcohol,  taken  in  the  form  of  the 
customary  beverages,  injure  health. 

If  science  could  furnish  proof  that  even  minute 
quantities  of  alcohol  hurt  the  individual,  it  would 
lend  the  greatest  possible  support  to  the  argument 
for  general  prohibition.  But  such  evidence  is  lack- 
ing. Rosemann,  widely  known  for  investigations  re- 
lating to  alcohol,  summarizes  his  extensive  inquiries 
in  these  words :  "  It  has  not  been  proved  that  a  mod- 
erate use  of  alcohol  injures  the  healthy  adult  body." 
In  discussing  the   assertion  that   even   the   smallest 


8  SOCIAL  ASPECTS  OF  DRINK 

doses  of  alcohol  are  hurtful  to  health,  Dr.  Santesson 
says:  "The  majority  of  physicians,  as  well  as  of 
the  public,  have  never  believed  it,  but  hold  daily  ex- 
perience to  show  that  this  conception  is  untrue  and 
exaggerated.  .  .  .  Note  well,  the  burden  of  proof 
rests  on  those  who  contend  that  in  the  long  run  mini- 
mal quantities  of  alcohol  operate  injuriously."  The 
Swedish  committee  of  physicians  expressed  itself  on 
this  subject  as  follows:  "  The  attempt  to  find  support 
in  the  results  of  medical  investigations  for  the  sup- 
position that  alcohol  in  the  form  of  customary  al- 
coholic beverages  under  all  conditions  is  to  be  re- 
garded as  an  injurious  substance,  a  poison,  can  with 
certainty  be  said  to  have  stranded.  In  this  way 
the  chain  of  evidence  whether  in  favor  of  a  volun- 
tary or  an  obligatory  absolutism  cannot  be  com- 
pleted." 

Our  present  state  of  knowledge,  then,  does  not  per- 
mit any  one  to  maintain  that  small  quantities  of 
alcohol  are  injurious  to  health  even  if  consumed 
daily.  But  it  is  another  matter  to  define  where  the 
boundary  lies  between  the  injurious  and  the  non- 
injurious  quantities  when  the  object  is  to  indicate  a 
maximum  limit  as  a  guidance  for  every-day  life. 
Many  elaborate  inquiries  have  been  made  in  order  to 
fix  the  safe  maximum  dose  of  alcohol,  but  with  very 
varying  results,  some  placing  it  as  low  as  16  grams 
per  day,  others  as  high  as  100  grams  or  even 
higher.  A  majority  of  investigators  would  seem  to 
place  the  limit  at  from  30  to  40  grams  of  alcohol, 


EFFECTS  OF  SMALL  QUANTITIES  9 

corresponding  to  about  one  liter  of  beer  or  a  tumbler 
of  wine  or  a  wineglass  of  whiskey  per  day. 

The  speculation  about  safe  quantities  is  without 
much  practical  value,  for  the  reaction  of  the  indi- 
vidual to  alcohol  differs  greatly,  not  only  according 
to  age  and  sex,  but  according  to  constitutional  pecu- 
liarities and  acquired  qualities  connected  with  the 
drink  habits  of  the  individual.  There  is  no  method  by 
which  we  can  measure  the  degree  of  individual  toler- 
ance to  alcohol,  and  therefore  it  is  impossible  to  gen- 
eralize about  the  safe  maximum  quantity.  We  know 
that  a  person  who  is  accustomed  to  intoxicants — 
perhaps  owing  to  a  more  rapid  burning  up  of  the 
alcohol — shows  greater  tolerance  toward  it,  while 
other  persons  exhibit  such  a  degree  of  intolerance 
that  even  minute  quantities  may  affect  them  as  a  poi- 
son. Not  a  little  depends  on  the  general  mode  of  liv- 
ing, as  alcohol  is  far  more  dangerous  to  the  underfed 
person,  when  it  is  allowed  to  become,  as  it  were, 
a  substitute  for  food,  than  when  taken  together  with 
a  sufficient  quantity  of  nutrition.  Occupation,  also, 
has  some  significance,  since  persons  employed  in 
heavy  muscular  work  are  more  likely  to  resist  the 
effect  of  alcohol  than  those  of  sedentary  habits. 
Then,  too,  much  depends  on  the  purity  of  the  bev- 
erage used,  the  concentration  of  alcohol,  whether  it 
is  gulped  down  or  consumed  at  intervals,  with  meals 
or  before  them,  during  the  day's  work  or  after  its 
close,  as  well  as  upon  habits  of  life  generally.  Again 
ordinary  experience  comes  to  our  aid,  for  it  teaches 


10  SOCIAL  ASPECTS  OF  DRINK 

us  plainly,  among  other  things,  that  some  adults  are 
peculiarly  susceptible  to  the  toxic  action  of  alcohol 
and  should  shun  it,  while  others  are  not  injuriously 
affected  if  they  use  it  in  moderation.  Experience 
also  shows  that  alcohol  has  no  more  place  in  the  diet 
of  the  young  than  coffee,  tea,  or  spices,  and  for  them, 
as  well  as  for  nervously  sick  persons,  total  abstinence 
spells  safety. 

Within  recent  years  numerous  experiments  have 
been  undertaken,  the  results  of  which  have  gained 
wide  currency  as  proving  that  even  a  moderate  use 
of  alcohol  may  have,  and  generally  has,  a  harmful 
effect.  These  experiments  relate  chiefly  to  the  action 
of  moderate  doses  of  alcohol  upon  psychic  functions 
and  to  some  extent  on  muscular  functions.  They  are 
largely  the  work  of  Kraepelin  and  his  disciples,  among 
whom  may  be  mentioned  Smith,  Fiirer,  Schnidtmann, 
Hildebrandt,  Ach,  Aschaffenburg,  Vogt,  Riidin,  and 
others.  These  scientists  do  not  themselves  assume  to 
have  reached  final  conclusions  on  many  essential 
points,  and  their  evidence  is  by  no  means  harmonious. 
But  in  the  present-day  discussion  of  the  alcohol  ques- 
tion so  much  emphasis  has  been  placed  upon  the  re- 
sults of  these  experiments  as  a  basis  of  scientific  tem- 
perance teaching,  that  it  is  in  place  to  examine  their 
bearings  a  little  more  closely  without,  however,  at- 
tempting to  account  for  single  experiments  which 
would  involve  too  much  detail. 

In  general,  it  has  been  attempted  to  show  the  pos- 
sibly injurious  effects  of  alcohol:  On  the  ability  to 


EFFECTS  OF  SMALL  QUANTITIES        11 

add  numbers;  on  memory;  on  the  perceptive  power; 
on  time  reaction  (the  time  elapsing  before  response 
is  made  to  a  given  signal) ;  on  the  ability  to  dis- 
tinguish signals ;  on  the  power  of  understanding. 
Other  experiments  covered  the  probable  effect  of 
alcohol  on  eyesight  (Busch),  on  hearing  (Specht), 
and  on  will  power  (Hildebrandt).  Finally,  some  ex- 
periments have  been  made  to  show  the  influence  of 
moderate  quantities  of  alcohol  upon  muscular  ac- 
tivity. 

Aside  from  the  fact  that  some  of  the  persons  ex- 
perimented on  were  little  affected  by  the  alcohol 
administered,  the  sum  total  of  the  results  from  the 
investigations  under  consideration  points  in  large 
measure  to  the  conclusion  that  alcohol  in  a  greater 
or  lesser  degree  has  injurious  effects.  Yet  all  of  the 
experiments  lack  a  final  scientific  validity  and  are 
open  to  certain  common-sense  objections. 

Evidently,  an  inquiry  into  the  possible  injurious 
effects  of  alcohol  intended  to  illustrate  conditions  in 
every-day  life  must  include  consideration  of  persons 
who  are  accustomed  to  the  use  of  alcohol,  for  they, 
and  not  the  abstainers,  are  in  need  of  guidance. 
Unfortunately,  many  of  the  experiments  were  made 
on  persons  wholly  unaccustomed  to  the  use  of  spiritu- 
ous drinks ;  but  if  one  wishes  to  reach  a  satisfactory 
conclusion  in  regard  to  their  bad  effects,  this  method 
is  just  as  impossible  as  it  would  be  to  determine  the 
injury  from  using  tobacco  simply  by  setting  persons 
wholly  unaccustomed  to  it  to  the  task  of  smoking 


12  SOCIAL  ASPECTS  OF  DRINK 

cigars.  Although  this  line  of  reasoning  is  so  self- 
evident,  it  is  a  fact  that  the  great  majority  of  ex- 
periments in  question  were  made  on  persons  who  for 
some  time  had  been  total  abstainers  or  of  whom  it  is 
not  stated  what  had  been  their  previous  relation  to 
the  use  of  alcohol. 

Professor  Dr.  Med.  Axel  Hoist,  who  has  made  a 
searching  examination  of  most  of  the  important  ex- 
periments under  consideration,  found  that  in  seven- 
teen of  them  nothing  is  known  so  far  as  five  are  con- 
cerned about  the  previous  relations  to  alcohol  of  the 
subjects  of  the  experimentation.  The  participants  in 
three  other  experiments  had  been  total  abstainers,  or 
practically  so,  for  several  years.  Of  the  participants 
in  one  of  the  experiments,  one  had  long  been  an  ab- 
stainer while  the  other  had  kept  abstinent  for  some 
time,  and  had  never  been  habituated  to  a  regular  use 
of  intoxicants.  In  two  experiments  the  participants 
had  foregone  the  use  of  alcohol  for  a  definite  time 
prior  to  the  investigation,  while  nothing  is  stated 
about  their  earlier  habits.  Six  other  experiments 
show  similar  conditions.  In  short,  out  of  the  total 
number  of  investigations  analyzed  by  Professor  Hoist 
that  may  be  of  some  special  significance  for  every- 
day life,  he  found  it  known  only  in  regard  to  two  that 
the  persons  lending  themselves  to  the  experiments  had 
previously  been  accustomed  to  a  regular  use  of 
alcoholic  drinks.  One  of  these,  carried  on  under 
Aschaff'enburg,  related  to  four  typesetters,  and  the 
other,  by  Busch,  to  the  effect  of  alcohol  on  eyesight. 


EFFECTS  OF  SMALL  QUANTITIES        13 

On  the  whole,  it  may  be  said  that  the  experiments 
on  persons  who  had  been  accustomed  to  the  regular 
use  of  alcohol  gave  results  less  markedly  unfavor- 
able to  drink  than  the  others.  If  it  be  true  that  also 
in  these  cases  the  injurious,  although  less  pronounced, 
effect  of  alcohol  was  traceable,  it  must  be  remembered 
that  also  these  experiments  were  not  conducted  under 
conditions  corresponding  to  those  ordinarily  govern- 
ing a  moderate  use  of  customary  alcoholic  beverages. 
When  the  purpose  is  to  find  out  by  means  of  an  experi- 
ment on  human  material  what  the  ordinary  effect  of 
the  moderate  use  of  alcohol  is,  it  verges  upon  the 
absurd  to  allow  the  drink  to  be  taken  on  an  empty 
stomach,  or  in  a  highly  concentrated  form,  or  to  al- 
low the  subjects  of  the  experiment  to  gulp  it  down 
at  once.  Such  procedure  affords  the  best  possible 
conditions  for  illustrating  the  harmful  effects  of  al- 
cohol on  the  organism,  for  it  enters  most  rapidly  into 
the  circulation  of  the  blood  when  taken  on  an  empty 
stomach  or  at  once  and  in  an  undiluted  form.  In 
every-day  life,  moderate  users  invariably  take  their 
drinks  in  a  diluted  form,  and  with  food ;  therefore  the 
same  detrimental  effects  do  not  occur  as  when  alcohol 
is  used  without  food,  perhaps  in  the  middle  of  the 
forenoon  or  afternoon. 

Strange  to  say,  these  commonplace  matters  re- 
ceived little  consideration  in  most  of  the  experiments 
referred  to.  Of  one  of  them,  for  instance,  it  is  stated 
that  a  large  quantity  of  wine  was  administered  to  the 
persons  experimented  on  late  in  the  afternoon,  con- 


14  SOCIAL  ASPECTS  OF  DRINK 

sequently  on  an  empty  stomach,  and  that  it  was  con- 
sumed at  once.  In  another  experiment,  the  equiva- 
lent of  200  ccm.  of  whiskey  was  taken  in  the  course 
of  a  few  moments,  at  eight  o'clock  in  the  morning. 
It  is,  therefore,  not  surprising  to  find  one  of  the  inves- 
tigators reaching  the  conclusion  that  the  most  striking 
result  obtained  by  him  was  that  alcohol  has  a  far 
more  injurious  effect  when  taken  without  than  with 
food. 

Another  objection  to  several  of  the  experiments  in 
question  is  that  the  investigators  have  utilized  them- 
selves as  subjects,  a  hazardous  method  in  science, 
or  that  the  persons  experimented  on  have  been  per- 
fectly aware  of  the  kind  and  quantity  of  alcohol  ad- 
ministered to  them,  and  were  thus  subject  to  psychic 
influences  which  may  have  influenced  the  results. 
Rivers  and  others  have  pointed  out  this  shortcom- 
ing, and  obtained  different  results  when  the  subjects 
of  the  experiments  were  given  alcohol  in  such  form 
that  they  were  not  aware  of  taking  it.  Practically 
without  exception,  the  experiments  considered  were 
of  too  short  duration  to  permit  conclusive  tests. 

In  raising  these  fairly  obvious  objections  it  is  not 
sought  to  belittle  the  importance  of  the  investiga- 
tions carried  on  by  the  Kraepelin  school.  Theoret- 
ically, they  undeniably  have  great  value,  and  when 
supplemented  by  other  and  more  searching  experi- 
ments may  prove  a  helpful  guide  to  the  regulation  of 
every-day  habits.  Perhaps  one  can  sum  it  up  by  say- 
ing, with  Dr.   Quensel,  that   the  experiments  have 


EFFECTS  OF  SMALL  QUANTITIES        15 

proved  that  work  and  drink  do  not  belong  together, 
especially  when  the  work  demands  alertness,  attention, 
exactness,  and  industry;  but  this  is  no  more  than 
every-day  experience  teaches.  When  these  investiga- 
tions are  said  to  prove  that  "  alcohol  reduces  the 
ability  to  carry  on  mental  work  logically,"  this  is 
also  something  coming  within  the  purview  of  ordinary 
observation. 

The  earlier  and  quite  commonly  accepted  theory 
that  alcohol  might  prove  particularly  helpful  in 
muscular  labor  has  long  since  been  exploded.  To  be 
sure,  even  Kraepelin  admits  that  the  use  of  alcohol 
may  be  rational,  especially  when  the  question  is  less 
of  exertion  of  strength  than  of  overcoming  natural, 
or  under  certain  conditions,  morbid  inhibitions,  when 
a  matter  calls  for  quick  decision.  He  adds,  "  This 
conclusion  from  the  experiments  harmonizes,  as  one 
knows,  with  the  experience  of  every-day  life." 

Specht  holds  that  the  investigations  hitherto  made 
cannot  be  accepted  as  final  proof  of  the  effects  of  alco- 
hol on  psychic  activities,  and  asks  if  it  may  not  be  that 
just  on  account  of  its  influence  upon  the  higher  intel- 
lectual functions  it  contains  a  positive  factor  which 
in  its  action  upon  the  mental  life  may  be  of  no  less 
significance  than  its  negative  effects  in  certain  direc- 
tions. In  short,  he  finds  that  the  question  of  the 
value  of  alcohol  as  a  means  of  enjoyment  is  so  inter- 
woven with  other  questions  of  an  esthetic,  cultural, 
social,  psychic,  and  mental  hygienic  character  that 
it  is  exceedingly  diflScult  to  answer  it,  and  that  it  can- 


16  SOCIAL  ASPECTS  OF  DRINK 

not  be  decided  on  the  basis  of  the  data  so  far  at  hand. 
Other  investigators — for  instance,  Thunberg — have 
begun  to  ask  whether  alcohol  in  inhibiting  certain 
functions  and  setting  others  free,  may  not  in  many 
instances  perform  a  beneficent  rather  than  a  harmful 
service.  "  It  would  be  well,"  he  says,  "  if  immediate 
attention  were  paid  to  the  possibility  that  some  per- 
sons gain  a  certain  benefit  from  alcohol  without  pay- 
ing too  dearly  for  it,  .  .  .  and  this  may  be  con- 
ceived in  regard  to  the  effect  of  alcohol  both  on  the 
subjective  moods  and  on  the  activity  of  thought. 
It  is  quite  possible  that  the  mental  life  of  some  per- 
sons is  too  largely  stamped  by  inhibitions  and  resist- 
ance. And  it  is  not  excluded  that  in  some  cases  al- 
cohol may  in  a  beneficial  way  counteract  the  inhibit- 
ing forces  and,  by  removing  resistance,  afford  freer 
play  to  thought." 

So  far,  then,  experimental  investigations,  while 
they  may  indicate  certain  injurious  effects  of  alcohol 
under  particular  conditions,  do  not  furnish  conclusive 
proof  that  every  use  of  alcohol  is  to  be  condemned, 
and  least  of  all  do  they  provide  a  final  argmnent 
against  its  moderate  use. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  is  not  attested  by  history 
nor  by  present-day  facts  that  alcohol-using  nations 
must  inevitably  succumb  to  the  forces  of  intemper- 
ance. It  is  commonplace  that  peoples  more  or  less 
habituated  to  the  use  of  intoxicants  have  made  incom- 
parably greater  progress  in  things  that  are  the  boast 
of   our   civilization   than,   for  instance,   totally  or 


EFFECTS  OF  SMALL  QUANTITIES        17 

partially  abstaining  peoples,  such  as  the  Hindus  and 
Muhammadans.  Racial  or  cultural  differences  do 
not  account  for  this  condition.  One  notes,  too,  that 
the  degree  of  eminence  attained  by  various  European 
nations  does  not  seem  to  bear  any  relation  whatsoever 
to  their  drink  habits.  The  Great  War  has  served  to 
bring  this  into  light.  The  endurance  and  ability  to 
organize  shown  by  France,  not  to  mention  her  pre- 
eminence in  peaceful  pursuits,  appear  to  be  unim- 
paired, although  the  country  is  perhaps  the  most  al- 
coholic in  Europe.  Both  in  pacific  and  military  arts 
the  Belgians  measure  high  in  the  scale,  although  their 
consumption  of  drink  is  almost  twice  as  great  as  that 
of  the  United  States.  No  nation  has  developed  a  more 
marvelous  efficiency  and  strength  than  the  German, 
notwithstanding  centuries-long  extensive  use  of  alco- 
holic drink. 

As  with  entire  nations  so  with  their  leaders.  If 
there  have  been  total  abstainers  whom  different  na- 
tions count  as  among  their  foremost  men,  they  have 
not  surpassed  their  numerous  predecessors  who  were 
not  abstainers.  Nor  can  the  average  total  abstainer 
be  shown  to  possess  any  superiority  over  the  average 
moderate  user  of  alcoholic  drink  in  mental  and  physi- 
cal ability  and  accomplishment. 

It  has  often  been  brought  forward  as  an  argu- 
ment for  the  absolute  exclusion  of  alcohol  that  a 
moderate  use  may  easily  degenerate  into  misuse,  be- 
cause the  consumption  of  alcohol  is  believed  to  create 
a    desire    for   it  in    ever-increasing   quantities.      Of 


18  SOCIAL  ASPECTS  OF  DRINK 

course  it  is  impossible  to  prove  this  contention, 
statistically  or  by  any  other  evidence.  There  is 
abundant  reason  for  the  opinion  that  in  our  times 
most  persons  who  take  alcohol  use  it  moderately,  that 
is,  its  use  does  not  lead  to  abuse.  Were  it  not  so,  the 
inroads  of  intemperance  would  certainly  be  far 
greater,  and  we  should  witness  the  wide  world  over 
an  inordinate  increase  in  the  consumption  of  intoxi- 
cants which  would  defy  all  control.  History,  how- 
ever, records  a  return  to  sobriety  also  in  lands  that 
once  were  fairly  inundated  by  drink,  whose  people 
have  survived  and  thrived.  Therefore,  the  fear  that 
a  moderate  use  of  alcohol  will  lead  to  intemperance 
lacks  justification. 

IV 

ALCOHOL  AND   DEGENERACY 

Merely  the  denial  of  physiologists  that  alcohol,  in 
the  form  of  beverages  commonly  used,  is  to  be  re- 
garded purely  as  an  injurious  substance  or  as  a 
"  poison,"  cannot  determine  our  attitude  toward 
prohibition.  We  are  told  to  weigh  the  pleasures  or 
benefits  of  drink  against  the  misfortunes  and  social 
ill-being  it  causes.  Yet,  though  evidence  tell  over- 
whelmingly against  alcohol,  there  still  confront  us 
these  two  fundamental  questions:  Can  national  pro- 
hibition stop  or  in  a  notable  degree  ameliorate  the 
evils  resulting  from  alcoholism?  Can  the  result  be 
accomplished  with  greater  certainty  and  less  risk 
through  other  means?     The  second  question  will  be 


ALCOHOL  AND  DEGENERACY  19 

answered  in  the  last  chapter  of  this  book.  The  reply 
to  the  first  question  must  be  based  on  accurate 
knowledge  of  the  kinds  and  extent  of  the  injury 
wrought  by  the  abuse  of  alcohol,  for  otherwise  we 
cannot  decide  wisely  about  the  protective  measures 
to  be  taken  or  perceive  the  sacrifices  it  may  be  neces- 
sary to  make. 

Within  the  slender  frame  of  a  single  chapter  one 
can  hardly  attempt  more  than  the  most  summary 
consideration  of  the  social  conditions  and  phenomena 
seemingly  bound  up  with  the  alcohol  problem.  Per- 
haps none  is  more  fundamental  than  that  of  the  rela- 
tion of  alcohol  to  heredity.  Many  have  come  to 
regard  alcohol  as  one  of  the  most  important  causes 
of  a  family  degeneration  which  manifests  itself  in 
different  ways.  The  evidence  is  culled  from  numer- 
ous observations  of  families  of  alcoholists,  in  which 
the  children  exhibit  more  or  less  pronounced  indica- 
tions of  mental  and  physical  defect.  Some  go  further 
and  hold  alcohol  responsible  for  a  diminished  repro- 
ductiveness,  the  frequency  of  miscarriage,  and  in- 
creased infantile  mortality.  Doubtless  the  abuse  of 
alcohol  is  not  without  influence  in  these  respects ;  and 
most  investigators  agree  to  the  extent  that  mentally 
or  physically  abnormal  children  are  more  frequently 
found  in  the  families  of  drinkers  than  elsewhere. 
But  opinions  diverge  sharply  on  the  interpretation 
of  the  causes  that  determine  such  conditions. 

Perhaps  no  modern  investigator  has  subjected  the 
mass  of  material  relating  to  this  subject  to  such  a 


20  SOCIAL  ASPECTS  OF  DRINK 

fair,  thorough,  and  exhaustive  test  as  Dr.  Ulrik 
Quensel,  Professor  of  Pathology  at  the  University 
of  Upsala.^  The  writer  therefore  feels  safe  in  setr 
ting  forth  his  judgment  on  the  scientific  value  of  the 
conclusions  reached  by  writers  like  Bezzola,  Bunge, 
Forel,  Gruber,  Legrain,  Laitinen,  Saleeby,  Helenius, 
and  a  host  of  less-known  spokesmen  for  theories 
about  the  race-destroying  effects  both  of  acute  and 
of  chronic  alcoholism. 

Dr.  Quensel,  in  summing  up,  considers  whether 
the  a  priori  assumable  direct  effect  of  alcohol  in 
poisoning  the  sex-cells  and  their  hereditary-bear- 
ing substance,  or  the  indirect  effect  of  alco- 
holism on  the  family  and  the  environment  in  which 
the  children  are  reared,  is  of  greater  significance. 
He  rejects  the  theory,  advanced  by  Forel  and 
others,  of  a  direct  destructive  effect  of  alco- 
hol on  the  germ-plasm,  in  cases  of  both  acute 
and  chronic  alcoholism,  saying,  "  The  facts  hitherto 
brought  forward  do  not  constitute  binding  evidence 
of  the  general  validity  of  the  theory."  Its  theoret- 
ical possibilities  he  does  not  deny.  In  particular, 
moreover,  he  is  skeptical  as  to  the  opinion  that  "  even 
a  moderate  use  of  alcohol  or  a  single  accidental  in- 
toxication, by  its  direct  effect  on  the  germ-plasm, 
can  cause  changes  transmissible  to  the  offspring." 
But  he  is  not  blind  to  the  possibility  that  a  chronic 
misuse  of  alcohol  may  have  an  injurious  effect  on 
the  organs  of  reproduction. 

*  Alkoholfragan  Fran  Medicinsk  Synpunkt,  1913. 


ALCOHOL  AND  DEGENERACY  21 

It  is  frequently  the  case,  says  Dr.  Quensel,  that 
the  alcoholic  himself  has  an  inherited  psychopathic 
tendency  which  made  him  a  drinker  in  the  first  in- 
stance, and  which  eventually  may  be  transmitted  to 
his  children.  The  statistical  literature  so  largely 
called  upon  to  prove  the  transmission  of  degeneracy 
and  certain  forms  of  mental  disease  through  alcohol, 
he  dismisses  by  citing  the  words  of  the  eminent  medi- 
cal statistician,  Dr.  Weinberg,  who  says,  "  Almost 
everything  remains  to  be  done  to  produce  exact 
workable  statistics  free  from  objections." 

Of  course,  Dr.  Quensel  is  not  oblivious  to  the  mani- 
fold indirect  effects  alcoholism  may  have  upon  family 
life,  and  its  consequences  for  the  children.  The 
obvious  poverty  resulting,  from  alcoholism  and  the 
associated  unhygienic  conditions  of  living,  hardly 
need  mention;  but  justly  to  apportion  the  exact 
value  of  all  such  influences  in  the  individual  instance 
is  almost  insuperably  difficult. 

According  to  Dr.  Quensel,  we  do  not  know  definitely 
"  that  alcohol,  as  such,  diminishes  reproductive- 
ness."  The  frequently  excessive  infantile  mortality 
in  the  families  of  alcoholics,  he  finds  may  be  due  to 
a  congenital  weakness  in  the  children,  which  never- 
theless may  also  be  explained  by  the  untoward  outer 
conditions  referred  to.  The  assumption  that  a 
psychic  abnormality  in  the  children  of  drunkards, 
especially  in  the  form  of  feeble-mindedness,  idiocy, 
and  epilepsy,  results  from  the  parental  abuse  of  alco- 
hol, he  regards  skeptically,  stating  that  the  causa- 


£2  SOCIAL  ASPECTS  OF  DRINK 

tion  in  this  form  of  degeneracy  is  exceedingly  com- 
plicated and  not  yet  demonstrable.  On  the  other 
hand,  he  believes  that  the  indirect  influences  of  alco- 
holism bear  widely  upon  the  development  of  the 
children,  and  may  suffice  to  make  this  development 
more  or  less  abnormal. 

The  prohibitionist  conception  of  alcoholism  as 
the  most  potent  race-destroying  agency  is  therefore 
wholly  untenable. 

The  Swedish  committee  of  physicians  concludes 
its  chapter  on  alcohol  and  heredity  as  follows :  "  To 
speculate  about  alcohol  as  a  cause  of  the  degenera- 
tion or  dying  out  of  whole  nations,  is  under  these 
circumstances  unjustifiable,  at  least  in  case  one  bases 
its  influence  upon  an  assumed  eff^ect  of  the  individual 
on  the  off'spring.  That  alcohol  through  its  social 
consequences  under  certain  conditions,  for  instance 
among  aborigines,  may  bring  a  people  to  the  brink 
of  destruction,  is  certain.  But  in  regard  to  Euro- 
pean civilized  peoples,  an  impartial  investigation  of 
their  relation  to  alcohol  seems  to  favor  the  hypothesis 
that  "  the  organ  of  heredity,"  perhaps  through  selec- 
tion, has  acquired  the  ability  to  protect  itself  against 
alcohol,  rather  than  the  popular  assumption  that  this 
organ — on  account  of  its  supposed  fine  structure- 
is  especially  exposed  to  all  the  poisons  circulating 
within  the  body  and  thereby  surrenders  the  genera- 
tion to  destructive  agencies  of  all  kinds."  * 
*  Alkoholen  och  Samhallet.  1919. 


ALCOHOL  AND  INSANITY  23 


ALCOHOL  AND  INSANITY 

Allied  to  the  basic  question  of  alcohol  as  a  direct 
factor  in  degeneracy  is  that  of  its  position  as  a  cause 
of  insanity.  The  popular  picture  of  its  importance 
in  this  respect  is  much  overdrawn;  and  for  this  ex- 
aggeration the  propagandist  temperance  literature 
is  responsible.  As  a  rule,  the  nervous  and  mental 
ailments  of  alcoholic  origin  are  clearly  distinguish- 
able. This  is  true,  for  instance,  of  alcoholic  poli- 
neuritis,  which  sometimes  is  associated  with  mental 
disturbances.  Alcoholic  hallucinations  and  delirium 
tremens,  the  commonest  form  of  insanity  caused  by 
drink,  are  easily  recognized.  Of  less  certain  etiology 
are  rarer  forms  of  derangement  such  as  *'  alcoholic 
paranoia." 

The  causative  relation  of  alcohol  to  other  forms 
of  mental  disease  is  even  more  obscure.  In  general, 
the  abuse  of  alcohol  appears  symptomatically  in  a 
number  of  dissimilar  psychoses,  such  as  dementia 
praecox,  maniacal  and  paralytic  conditions  of  exalta- 
tion, and  others.  It  is  accepted  that  alcoholism  may 
contribute  directly  or  indirectly  to  upset  the  psychic 
balance  of  persons  predisposed  to  mental  disease  and 
thereby  help  to  give  it  form.  The  whole  case  can  be 
put  briefly  in  this  way:  The  mental  diseases  occur- 
ring in  intemperate  persons  are  partly  of  a  specific 
character,  partly  those  in  which  alcoholism  is  con- 


S4  SOCIAL  ASPECTS  OF  DRINK 

tributory,  and  partly  those  in  which  it  must  be  re- 
garded less  as  a  cause  than  as  an  expression  of  an 
abnormal  psychic  constitution  which  becomes  more 
clearly  revealed  by  mental  disease. 

Much  of  the  flatulent  statistical  material  invoked 
to  prove  that  alcohol  is  a  most  prolific  source  of  in- 
sanity is  of  the  imaginative  or  made-to-order  variety. 
The  United  States  Census  report  on  the  insane  in 
hospitals  shows  alcoholic  psychoses  to  be  the  diag- 
nosis in  but  10.1  per  cent  of  the  whole  number  of 
patients  admitted  to  all  hospitals  for  the  insane  dur- 
ing 1910.  Yet  the  inference  that  none  of  the  persons 
involved  would  have  become  insane  except  for  the 
abuse  of  alcohol  is  not  at  all  permissible.  Quite 
apart  from  any  inclination  to  exaggerate,  and  apart 
from  a  frequently  antiquated  classification  of  mental 
diseases,  the  average  hospital  diagnostician  does  not 
or  cannot  procure  the  data  which  invariably  enable 
him  to  determine  whether  alcoholism  is  of  a  mere  in- 
cidental kind  and  a  symptom  of  an  abnormal  make-up 
or  an  already  existing  mental  disease,  or  a  true  etio- 
logical factor. 

In  curious  contrast  to  the  above-mentioned  per- 
centage of  alcohol  psychoses  in  all  the  hospitals  for 
the  insane  in  the  United  States,  is  the  result  of  an 
investigation  made  in  1915  under  the  authority  of 
the  Massachusetts  State  Board  of  Insanity.  It  re- 
lates to  793  cases  in  the  State  Hospital  for  the 
Criminal  Insane.  Of  this  number,  no  less  than  340 
were  originally   commited   from  the  so-called  State 


ALCOHOL  AND  INSANITY  25 

Farm,  to  which  chiefly  drunkards,  tramps,  and  others 
of  the  same  strain  are  sent;  the  remainder  for  the 
greater  part  being  committed  from  other  penal  insti- 
tutions. Thus  the  character  and  past  of  the  inmates 
would  seem  to  give  promise  of  yielding  high  percent- 
ages of  alcoholic  psychoses.  Yet  the  "  probable 
diagnosis  agreed  upon  "  (by  the  competent  alienist 
in  charge  of  the  investigation),  in  conference  with 
"  the  Superintendent  and  other  members  of  the  staiF," 
discloses  chronic  alcoholic  insanity  in  8.8,  acute  al- 
coholic insanity  in  .3,  chronic  alcoholism  in  .1,  and 
feeble-mindedness  plus  acute  alcoholic  insanity  in  .1 
per  cent  of  all  the  cases,  or  a  total  of  9.3  per  cent 
with  stated  alcoholic  psychoses.  Such  figures  should 
at  least  make  one  very  cautious  about  accepting  cur- 
rent statistics  purporting  to  establish  alcohol  as 
probably  the  chief  causative  factor  in  insanity. 

On  the  whole,  the  statistical  material  available  both 
in  Europe  and  in  the  United  States,  purporting  to 
deal  with  alcohol  as  a  factor  in  insanity,  is  of  an  un- 
satisfactory character  also  because  much  of  it  dates 
from  a  period  in  which  the  classification  of  mental 
diseases  as  well  as  their  diagnosis  left  much  to  be 
desired.  Several  statistical  investigations  are  at 
hand,  however,  which  serve  to  illustrate  from  a  more 
general  point  of  view  the  relation  between  alcohol  and 
insanity.  Their  general  tenor  is  to  raise  very  seri- 
ous doubts  in  regard  to  the  significance  of  alcohol  as 
a  direct  factor  of  disease  in  mentally  healthy  persons 
who  are  free  from  psychopathic  tendencies, — except, 


26  SOCIAL  ASPECTS  OF  DRINK 

of  course,  the  alcoholics  themselves,  who,  etiologically 
considered,  form  a  separate  group.  Other  investiga- 
tions proceeding  from  different  points  of  view  have 
likewise  yielded  results  that  make  one  query  whether 
alcoholism  is  a  particularly  important  cause  of  other 
forms  of  mental  disease  than  those  classified  as  purely 
alcoholic. 

Already  the  incontestable  fact  that  women,  who 
universally  are  far  less  given  to  alcoholic  indulgence 
than  men,  are  known  to  be  relatively  almost  as  liable 
to  insanity,  bespeaks  caution  in  judging  of  the  sig- 
nificance of  alcohol  in  the  etiology  of  mental  diseases 
generally.  The  distribution  of  males  and  females  in 
hospitals  of  the  insane  in  the  United  States  indicate 
this.  Although  the  males  preponderate  in  them  as 
well  as  in  the  general  population,  the  difference  is 
not  so  great  as  to  be  explained  on  the  basis  of  a  single 
etiological  factor. 

An  exceedingly  important  comparison  has  been 
made  by  Dr.  J.  Scharffenberg,  himself  a  foremost 
advocate  of  abstinence,  of  the  relative  frequency  of 
mental  disease  in  Norway  and  Denmark.  As  is  gen- 
erally known,  the  consumption  of  alcohol  in  Denmark 
is  more  than  treble  that  in  Norway.  Dr.  Scharffen- 
berg says :  "  If  alcoholism  were  a  specially  Important 
cause  of  mental  disease,  then  mental  disease  should  be 
considerably  more  frequent  among  men  than  among 
women,  and  more  frequent  in  countries  with  a  large 
alcohol  consumption  than  in  countries  with  a  low 
consumption ;  but  a  comparison  between  Norway  and 


ALCOHOL  AND  INSANITY  27 

Denmark  shows  at  once  that  this  is  not  the  case,  as- 
suming the  enumerations  of  the  insane  to  have  been 
just  as  exact  in  both  countries."  He  then  adduces 
a  table  of  the  insane  in  both  countries  per  10,000  of 
population,  classified  by  age,  which  shows  the  ratio  of 
26.69  insane  men  in  Norway  as  against  16.2  in  Den- 
mark, while  the  ratio  of  insane  women  was  26.40  in 
Norway  and  18.0  in  Denmark. 

Dr.  Scharffenberg  then  continues :  "  The  number 
of  insane  is  thus  for  both  sexes  and  in  all  age  groups 
considerably  higher  in  Norway  than  in  Denmark — 
even  in  the  case  of  men  between  20  and  40  years  of 
age  about  twice  as  frequent  in  Norway  as  in  Den- 
mark— and  in  Norway  mental  disease  is  slightly  more 
frequent  in  men  than  in  women,  while  in  Denmark  it 
is  rarer  among  men  than  among  women  in  spite  of  the 
great  extent  of  alcoholism.  .  .  .  The  same  is  true  in 
regard  to  the  relation  between  alcoholism  in  parents 
and  idiocy  in  the  offspring.  I  assume  a  very  skep- 
tical attitude  toward  the  current  belief  in  such  a 
relation  and  hold  that  both  idiocy  and  alcoholism 
have  been  an  expression  of  degeneration  in  the  cases 
on  which  the  assertion  has  been  based  that  parental 
alcoholism  leads  to  feeble-mindedness  in  the  off- 
spring." He  shows  that  per  10,000  inhabitants  there 
were  in  Norway  22.64  idiotic  males  as  against  14.6  in 
Denmark,  while  the  ratio  of  female  idiots  in  Norway 
was  18.55  and  in  Denmark  11.7.  Dr.  Scharffenberg 
concludes  from  these  figures  that  Norway  thus  has 
considerably  more  idiots  than  Denmark,  although  the 


28  SOCIAL  ASPECTS  OF  DRINK 

Danish  consumption  of  alcohol  for  at  least  fifty 
years  has  been  more  than  twice  as  large  as  the  Nor- 
wegian. 

It  is  finally  to  be  remarked  that  mental  diseases 
directly  attributable  to  alcohol  as  a  rule  pass  quickly 
away.  This  is  particularly  true  of  delirium  tremens, 
and  also  of  hallucinations.  Alcoholism,  especially  in 
large  cities,  is  "  certainly  the  cause  of  a  large  num- 
ber of  mental  diseases,  but  only  exceptionally  of  those 
which  in  popular  parlance  are  designated  by  that 
name ;  and  as  alcoholic  mental  derangements  are  of  a 
temporary  character  and  due  to  a  certain  outward 
and  not  insuperable  cause,  they  do  not  have  such 
serious  consequences  either  for  the  individual  patient 
or  for  society,  as  commonly  have  the  other  mental 
diseases." 

If  actual  conditions  pointed  to  alcohol  as  one  of  the 
chief  factors  in  mental  disease,  it  would  necessarily 
follow  that  the  number  of  total  abstainers  among  the 
mentally  sick  would  be  relatively  low.  There  is  no 
evidence  to  this  effect,  but  negative  proof  may  be  ad- 
duced from  the  statement  already  made  in  regard  to 
the  great  proportion  of  women  among  the  insane,  of 
whom  it  may  be  assumed  that  the  greater  number,  at 
least,  of  those  who  come  from  prohibition  states,  are 
abstainers. 

Alcoholism  frequently  gives  rise  to  certain  hal- 
lucinations that  deserve  attention,  although  they  can- 
not be  designated  as  mental  diseases.  Commonly 
such  hallucinations  take  the  form  of  an  unwarranted 


ALCOHOL  AND  INSANITY  29 

jealousy,  that  is,  a  groundless  suspicion  turning,  per- 
haps, into  accusation  of  marital  infidelity.  Hallu- 
cinations of  this  kind  often  lead  to  violence  and  occa- 
sionally to  crime.  Erroneous  imaginings  are  fre- 
quent in  chronic  alcoholics,  not  only  when  they  are 
in  a  state  of  acute  intoxication,  but  also  when  they 
are  sober. 

By  far  the  most  common  and  usually  the  earliest 
appearing  effect  of  chronic  alcohol  poisoning  on  the 
brain  shows  itself  in  blunted  mental  powers  and  a 
corresponding  loss  of  energy  and  of  inclination  to 
work.  It  is  an  every-day  observation  that  the  char- 
acter of  the  alcoholic  undergoes  marked  changes.  He 
grows  irritable  and  weary  of  existence;  his  ethical 
perceptions  become  dulled;  his  sense  of  shame  grows 
less ;  the  feeling  of  family  and  civic  responsibility  dis- 
appears. At  the  same  time  he  develops  more  and 
more  into  a  cynical,  brutal  egoist. 

That  alcoholism  is  productive  of  mental  conditions 
to  some  extent  leading  to  suicide,  hardly  needs  con- 
firmation. It  is,  of  course,  difficult  to  determine  pre- 
cisely the  causative  factors  in  very  many  if  not  in 
most  cases  of  self-destruction,  and  drink  may  be  only 
one  of  several.  A  comparison  of  the  rate  of  suicide  in 
different  countries  with  the  per  capita  consumption 
of  intoxicants  yields  rather  contradictory  results. 
In  France,  Switzerland,  and  Denmark,  a  heavy  con- 
sumption of  alcohol  coincides  with  a  high  rate  of  sui- 
cide. On  the  other  hand,  in  the  Netherlands  the  fre- 
quency of  suicide  is  about  equal  to  that  in  Norway, 


80  SOCIAL  ASPECTS  OF  DRINK 

although  the  annual  consumption  of  alcohol  is  about 
twice  as  large  as  in  Norway.  In  Great  Britain  and 
Ireland  the  suicide  rate  approaches  that  of  Norway, 
yet  the  consumption  of  alcohol  is  much  greater  than 
in  the  Netherlands.  Self-destruction  appears  to  be 
less  in  Belgium  (the  statement  refers  to  conditions 
prior  to  the  war)  than  in  Sweden,  and  it  equals  about 
one-half  of  that  for  Denmark,  although  the  per  capita 
consumption  of  alcohol  in  Belgium  was  about  twice  as 
much  as  that  of  Sweden,  and  larger  than  that  of  Den- 
mark. Self-evidently,  these  facts  point  to  national 
characteristics  and  peculiarities  of  a  more  or  less 
determinative  kind,  from  which  it  is  impossible  to 
draw  hard  and  fast  conclusions.  The  only  thing 
which  can  be  said  with  certainty  is  that  care  must 
be  taken  not  to  exaggerate  alcoholism  as  a  cause  of 
suicide. 

VI 
AliCOHOUSM  AND  DISEASE 

The  medical  literature  on  alcohol  as  a  factor  In 
disease  is  perhaps  more  prolific  than  conclusive.  To 
begin  with,  the  effect  of  the  abuse  of  alcohol  on  the 
human  organism  is  of  such  a  character  that  from  a 
pathological-anatomical  point  of  view  it  is  hardly 
permissible  to  designate  specific  diseases  as  being  of 
purely  alcoholic  origin.  In  other  words,  the  disease 
changes  which  occur  in  different  organs,  and  which 
are  more  or  less  conditioned  by  the  abuse  of  alcohol, 


ALCOHOLISM  AND  DISEASE  31 

should  not  be  regarded  as  peculiar  and  independent 
manifestations  of  disease,  for  they  may  be  due  to 
several  other  causes;  they  are  not  necessarily  char- 
acteristic of  drunkards,  since  alcohol  is  only  one  of 
their  etiological  factors.  Some  of  the  "  approved 
text-books  "  quite  overlook  this  truth. 

Of  course,  the  question  at  this  point  is  not  of  a 
moderate  use  of  alcoholic  beverages,  for  this  is  con- 
ceived to  mean  one  without  deleterious  effect  upon 
the  condition  of  health.  That  some  persons  react 
unfavorably  to  alcohol  in  any  form  and  in  the  small- 
est quantities,  usually  points  to  a  psychopathic  con- 
dition or  to  a  peculiar  nervous  make-up.  An  analo- 
gous example  is  that  of  otherwise  healthy  persons 
who,  for  instance,  cannot  use  tobacco  and  coffee 
without  disagreeable  consequences,  or  who  are 
"  poisoned  "  by  eating  certain  foods. 

The  immoderate  use  of  alcoholic  drink  frequently 
leaves  unmistakable  traces  of  its  action,  but  may 
also  be  very  obscure  in  its  effects.  The  relationship 
between  excessive  drink  habits  and  ill-health  is  made 
evident  also  from  the  fact  that,  after  a  period  of 
complete  abstinence,  certain  notable  symptoms  of 
physical  derangement  to  which  drinkers  are  subject 
may  wholly  disappear.  Moreover,  continued  abuse 
of  alcohol  may  reveal  symptoms  of  disease,  as  well 
as  changes  in  different  organs,  that  are  objectively 
demonstrable.  But  the  positive  connection  between 
alcohol  and  disease  can  as  a  rule  be  determined  only 
when  a  complication  of  different  disease-symptoms 


32  SOCIAL  ASPECTS  OF  DRINK 

has  made  its  appearance,  or  when  a  single  manifesta- 
tion of  disease  can  be  viewed  in  the  light  of  a  pre- 
vious abuse  of  alcohol. 

Aside  from  this,  ordinary  experience  tells  us  that 
through  the  economic  conditions  it  creates,  and  by 
impairing  one's  vitality  and  in  other  ways  lowering 
the  power  of  resistance,  habitual  alcoholism  predis- 
poses and  exposes  to  disease.  The  moral  aspect  of 
the  case  is  a  different  story  and  does  not  belong  to 
the  present  discussion. 

The  insistence  of  current  anti-drink  literature 
that  alcohol  is  a  direct  cause  of  certain  diseases 
makes  it  desirable  to  mention  briefly  what  deduc- 
tions medical  science  appears  to  warrant. 

It  is  commonly  accepted  that  alcoholism  tends  to 
lower  the  power  of  the  human  organism  to  resist 
infections  generally.  This  observation  rests  upon 
broad  experience  rather  than  upon  extended  scien- 
tific tests.  Among  acute  infectious  diseases  the 
largest  attention  has  been  devoted  to  pneumonia  in 
its  relation  to  the  drink  habit.  The  computations 
made  by  a  number  of  medical  statisticians  purport 
to  show  an  excessive  mortality  from  this  disease 
among  drinkers.  Its  fatality  when  complicated  with 
delirium  tremens  is  well  known.  Recent  investiga- 
tions going  into  greater  detail  have  shown  very 
clearly  the  prominent  part  played  by  delirium 
tremens  as  a  complicating  factor  in  pneumonia. 
Thus  Karlsson  has  found  that  if  the  delirium  pa- 
tients are  excluded,  the  mortality  from  pneumonia 


ALCOHOLISM  AND  DISEASE  33 

is  not  greater  among  men  of  the  age  of  20  to  50 
years  than  among  women  of  the  same  age  classes, 
although  the  latter  are  far  less  likely  to  abuse  alco- 
hol. Pneumonia  thus  becomes  especially  dangerous 
to  drinkers  when  a  new  condition  of  disease  is  added. 
Still  some  of  the  most  recent  as  well  as  extensive 
statistical  inquiries  have  not  established  any  espe- 
cially prominent  influence  of  alcoholism  in  pneu- 
monia cases,  for  instance  the  so-called  Leipzig  in- 
vestigation (1910).  On  the  whole  the  available  data 
are  somewhat  contradictory  and  generally  inconclu- 
sive, especially  the  statistics  seeming  to  indicate  a 
greater  mortality  among  men  than  among  women 
from  this  disease,  which  self-evidently  may  be  due  to 
quite  other  causes  than  drunkenness.  How  uncer- 
tain the  inferences  drawn  from  such  statistics  are 
appears  also  from  computations  of  the  mortality 
from  pneumonia  in  relation  to  the  number  of  persons 
attacked  by  it.  In  Norway,  for  instance,  it  has 
been  found  that  the  morbidity  was  not  larger  but 
rather  somewhat  smaller  among  men  than  among 
women ;  and  the  greater  mortality  among  men  was 
due  to  the  circumstance  that  more  men  were  at- 
tacked. 

The  relation  of  tuberculosis  to  alcoholism  has  been 
the  subject  of  a  vast  amount  of  discussion  and  no 
little  statistical  inquiry.  It  is  commonly  assumed 
that  drinkers  are  particularly  exposed  and  more  fre- 
quently succumb  to  pulmonary  tuberculosis  than 
other  persons.     Some  authorities  hold  that  alcohol- 


34  SOCIAL  ASPECTS  OF  DRINK 

ism  has  the  direct  effect  of  weakening  the  organism 
and  thus  diminishing  the  power  of  resistance  against 
infection,  while  others  incline  to  emphasize  its  in- 
direct effect  both  on  the  individuals  and  on  the  gen- 
eral condition  of  living.  We  know  that  unhygienic, 
crowded  dwellings  lacking  light,  air,  and  cleanliness, 
induce  tuberculous  infection.  And  as  alcoholism 
makes  for  poverty  and  suffering  in  many  families, 
it  contributes  indirectly  to  spread  the  disease, 
especially  because  inebriates  frequently  are  indif- 
ferent to  the  commonest  demands  of  personal  hy- 
giene and  are  underfed  if  not  suffering  actual  want. 
In  so  far  as  it  creates  a  generally  unfavorable  envi- 
ronment, it  is  therefore  clear  that  alcoholism  in  many 
instances  is  a  very  active  factor  in  spreading  tuber- 
culosis. Beyond  this  we  have  little  evidence  of  a 
direct  relation  between  this  disease  and  intemper- 
ance. The  statistical  studies  made  are  not  so  ex- 
haustive or  free  from  objection  as  to  be  authorita- 
tive. Merely  to  ascertain  the  alcoholic  habits  of 
tuberculous  persons  is  not  enough ;  the  investigations 
must  include  large  numbers  of  persons  who  abuse 
liquor  in  order  to  learn  the  general  frequency  of 
tuberculosis  among  them. 

The  pitiful  ravages  of  tuberculosis  in  this  country 
among  rural  dwellers  of  certain  nationalities,  for 
instance,  the  Scandinavian,  have  long  been  observed. 
Since  the  young  of  both  sexes  are  equally  among  the 
victims,  and  it  can  be  established  that  they,  as  well 
as    their  parents,    are    almost    free    from   alcoholic 


ALCOHOLISM  AND  DISEASE  35 

habits,  intemperance  appears  to  be  excluded  as  a 
causative  factor  in  their  case. 

Were  the  use  of  intoxicants  in  itself  a  factor  in 
tuberculosis,  one  would  expect  to  find  a  definite 
parallelism  between  the  consumption  of  alcohol  in 
a  country  or  locality  and  the  frequency  of  tubercu- 
losis ;  but  it  has  not  been  established.  A  comparison 
of  the  statistics  of  tuberculosis  by  Prinzing  with 
statistics  of  the  consumption  of  alcohol  shows  the 
mortality  from  tuberculosis  in  Switzerland  and 
Spain  to  coincide  with  the  very  large  consumption 
of  alcohol  in  these  countries,  while  in  the  Danish 
cities,  in  spite  of  a  similar  or  perhaps  larger  use  of 
alcohol,  the  mortality  in  question  is  considerably 
less.  The  mortality  from  pulmonary  tuberculosis  is 
less  also  in  the  Danish  than  in  the  Swedish  cities, 
although  the  consumption  of  drink  in  Denmark  is 
twice  as  large  as  that  of  Sweden.  The  same  differ- 
ence is  to  be  observed  between  German  and  Swedish 
cities.  Furthermore,  while  the  mortality  from  tu- 
berculosis in  1891-1900  for  the  whole  of  Holland 
was  equivalent  to  or  probably  only  two-thirds  of  the 
corresponding  mortality  for  the  whole  of  Norway, 
the  consumption  of  alcohol  in  Holland  was  at  least 
twice  as  large  as  that  of  Norway.  Finally,  the  mor- 
tality from  tuberculosis  for  the  whole  of  Italy  fell 
below  that  in  Germany,  although  the  consumption 
of  alcohol  in  the  two  countries  was  about  equal. 

All  evidence  at  hand  warrants  the  conclusion  that 
the  larger  or  smaller  quantities  of  alcohol  consumed 


36  SOCIAL  ASPECTS  OF  DRINK 

do  not  of  themselves  determine  the  frequency  of  tu- 
berculosis in  any  country,  but  that  other  factors 
must  be  taken  into  account.  Also,  it  is  not  proved 
"  that  a  moderate  consumption  of  alcohol  affects  in- 
juriously the  power  of  resistance  to  tuberculosis ; 
but  that  the  question  must  be  one  of  abuse." 

The  exceedingly  common  conditions  of  disease  due 
to  a  hardening  of  the  arteries  have  been  made  the 
subject  of  an  unusual  amount  of  investigation,  but 
without  establishing  how  far  alcohol  is  one  of  its 
causative  factors.  The  relation  of  arteriosclerosis 
to  the  occurrence  of  chronic  changes  in  the  heart, 
kidneys,  brain,  and  other  organs  is  held  to  be  very 
specific  and  important.  If,  then,  the  contention 
were  true  that  alcohol,  more  than  anything  else,  oc- 
casions arteriosclerosis,  the  case  against  drink  even 
in  moderate  quantities  would  be  very  strong,  but  it 
does  not  seem  to  be  supported  by  any  comprehensive, 
systematic,  pathological-anatomical  investigation. 
On  the  contrary,  foremost  pathologists  have  demon- 
strated conclusively  not  only  that  the  arteries  in  cases 
of  pronounced  alcoholism  may  show  a  complete  ab- 
sence of  arteriosclerotic  changes,  but  that  the  disease 
does  not  occur  earlier  or  to  greater  extent  in  alco- 
holics than  in  others.  One  may  therefore  safely  say 
that  in  this  instance  as  well  as  in  many  other  manifes- 
tations of  disease,  the  tendency  is  to  exaggerate 
rather  than  to  minimize  the  position  of  alcohol  as  a 
factor. 

Chronic  diseases  of  the  kidneys  have  been  held. 


ALCOHOLISM  AND  DISEASE  37 

particularly  by  English  and  American  physicians, 
to  owe  their  origin  to  intemperance;  and  mortality 
statistics  of  most  uncertain  value  are  resorted  to  as 
proof.  Investigations  made  in  various  countries 
(for  instance,  Germany  and  Denmark)  are  not  at 
all  in  accord  about  the  relation  between  chronic  kid- 
ney diseases  and  alcoholism.  Recent  inquiries  made 
in  this  country  confirm  the  view  {Journal  of  the 
American  Medical  Association,  23-7-1910)  that 
chronic  diseases  of  the  kidneys  occasionally  do  arise 
from  alcoholism,  but  that  tlie  frequency  of  such  cases 
is  very  doubtful. 

In  temperance  text-books  as  well  as  in  general  dis- 
cussion, great  emphasis  has  been  placed  upon  the 
occurrence  of  cirrhosis  of  the  liver,  which  is  desig- 
nated as  specifically  a  drinker's  disease,  a  name,  as 
Dr.  Quensel  remarks,  that  with  far  greater  justice 
could  be  applied  to  fatty  degeneration  of  the  liver, 
as  the  latter  is  much  more  common  in  drinkers  and 
of  more  regular  occurrence  than  the  comparatively 
rare  cirrhosis.  This  much  seems  to  be  established 
by  modern  research, — partly  that  cirrhosis  in  in- 
ebriates is  relatively  unusual  and,  partly,  that  cir- 
rhosis of  the  same  character  as  that  found  in  in- 
ebriates occurs  not  seldom  without  a  previous  abuse 
of  alcohol.  It  has  also  been  ascertained  that  the 
occurrence  or  the  degree  of  cirrhosis  does  not  bear 
direct  relation  to  the  amount  of  alcohol  consumed. 
Moreover,  persons  who  have  not  misused  or  have 
only  moderately  used  alcohol  may  suffer  from  the 


88  SOCIAL  ASPECTS  OF  DRINK 

disease,  even  the  very  young.  The  doctrine  of  the 
supremacy  of  alcohol  among  the  factors  in  cirrhosis 
of  the  liver  is  largely  mere  assertion.  One  thing  only 
can  be  said  with  a  degree  of  finality ;  that  excessive 
drinking  predisposes  to  this  particular  disease  as  to 
several  others. 

It  would  carry  us  far  beyond  the  scope  of  the  pres- 
ent discussion  to  mention  even  thus  cursorily  the 
other  bodily  ailments  in  their  possible  relation  to 
alcoholism.  Those  considered  are  most  frequently 
referred  to  in  arguments  for  absolute  prohibition 
and  have  therefore  required  some  attention;  exactly 
what  part  alcoholism  has  even  in  regard  to  these  is 
quite  obscure  and  uncertain,  and,  of  course,  this  is 
far  more  likely  to  be  true  of  other  conditions  of 
disease  less  obviously  associated  with  intemper- 
ance. 

The  actual  mortality  due  to  drink  cannot  be 
stated  for  any  country.  Statistical  evidence  is 
hardly  needed  to  show  that  a  long-continued  exces- 
sive use  of  alcohol  tends  to  shorten  life.  But  to 
what  extent  this  happens  we  do  not  know.  Neither 
American  nor  European  statistics  can  lay  claim  to 
especial  validity  in  determining  in  a  general  way 
how  far  alcoholism  is  a  direct  factor  in  mortality; 
our  own  are  notably  full  of  omissions  and  uncertain- 
ties. Some  European  investigations  indicate,  among 
other  things,  an  excessive  mortality  within  certain 
occupations  in  which  alcoholism  is  most  likely  to  be 
prevalent.     This  harmonizes  with  every-day  observa- 


ALCOHOLISM  AND  DISEASE  39 

tion  and  experience,  but  does  not  bear  with  much 
force  on  the  question  of  a  moderate  use. 

Most  of  the  statistics  contrasting  the  mortality  in 
cities  and  in  rural  districts  and  comparing  the  mor- 
tality among  alcoholics  with  that  of  the  general 
population  are  inconclusive,  some  of  ancient  date, 
and  generally  open  to  all  manner  of  objections  purely 
from  a  statistical  point  of  view. 

If  one  could  establish  a  definite  parallelism  be- 
tween mortality  and  the  quantitative  use  of  alcohol 
it  would  provide  a  strong  reason  for  believing  in  an 
excessive  mortality  due  to  alcoholism,  but  it  does  not 
seem  to  exist.  It  is  frequently  instanced  that  the 
average  duration  of  life  in  Sweden  has  increased 
constantly  since  the  beginning  of  the  year  1800, 
although  the  abuse  of  alcohol  in  the  latter  part  of 
the  first  half  of  this  century  was  unparalleled  and 
although  the  consumption  still  remains  compara- 
tively high.  In  the  same  country  an  astounding 
variation  in  mortality  has  been  found  within  dif- 
ferent provinces  and  bearing  no  relation  whatsoever 
to  the  known  consumption  of  alcohol.  Ovize  has 
shown  that  in  France  the  extent  of  mortality  in  dif- 
ferent departments  seems  to  be  wholly  unrelated  to 
the  amount  of  alcohol  consumed.  When  the  condi- 
tions in  entire  countries  are  compared  the  same  fact 
stands  out. 

"  In  order  to  determine  more  clearly,"  says  Dr. 
Quensel,  "  how  far  the  general  mortality  in  different 
countries  appears  to  stand  in  direct  relation  to  the 


40  SOCIAL  ASPECTS  OF  DRINK 

consumption  of  spirits,  I  have  prepared  the  table 
given  below,  in  which  I  show  the  number  of  deaths 
of  men  per  thousand  during  the  years  1891-1900, 
or  for  parts  of  this  period.  The  consumption  of 
spirits  is  reckoned  per  capita  in  liters  of  absolute 
alcohol  for  the  same  years  as  covered  by  the  mor- 
tality statistics  (except  that  in  regard  to  the  Nether- 
lands and  Finland  the  consumption  covers  a  shorter 
period). 

COKSUMPnON"  OF  Al^ 
MORTAUTT  AMONG      COHOL  IN  LITEB8  OF 
MEN  ABSOLUTE  ALCOHOL 

Sweden  19.63  5.66 

Norway   19.84  2.85 

Denmark   19.92  11.80 

Netherlands 21.65  6.00 

France  21.86  20.80 

Belgium   22.03  14.00 

England  and  Wales   22.66  11.00 

Finland    23.31  2.04 

Italy     23.35  15.20 

Germany    24.65  9.50 

Austria   26.48  9.40 

"  The  table  indicates  in  general  that  there  is  no 
parallelism  between  the  mortality  statistics  and  the 
consumption  of  spirits.  There  are  evidently  other 
factors  which  determine  mortality  as  a  whole  for  the 
country,  among  which  may  be  mentioned  the  influ- 
ence of  infant  mortality,  of  infectious  disease,  and 
the  general  condition  of  hygiene." 

The  returns  of  life  insurance  companies  have  been 
widely  cited  to  prove  that  abstainers  enjoy  a  greater 
'longevity  than   moderate   drinkers.     An   especially 


ALCOHOLISM  AND  DISEASE  41 

liberal  use  in  this  respect  has  been  made  of  the  re- 
turns of  the  Scepter  Life  Association  and  of  the 
United  Kingdom  Temperance  and  General  Provi- 
dent Institution.  These  life  insurance  statistics  have 
been  made  the  subject  of  much  incisive  and  to  some 
extent  destructive  criticism  in  so  far  as  an  effort 
has  been  made  to  construe  them  as  evidence  against 
all  use  of  intoxicants.  Without  attempting  to  re- 
state the  objections  raised  or  to  enter  upon  a  tech- 
nical analysis,  it  may  be  said  that  life  insurance  sta- 
tistics no  doubt  confirm  the  obvious  conclusion  that 
the  expectation  of  life  is  shortest  among  the  habitu- 
ally inebriate,  but  this  proof  of  a  super-mortality 
among  non-abstainers  does  not  imply  a  condemnation 
of  every  use  of  alcoholic  beverages.  It  is  clear  that 
among  insured  male  non-abstainers  there  will  always 
be  found  a  number  of  persons  who  abuse  drink,  or 
who  must  be  regarded  as  uncertain,  and  yet  serve 
to  increase  very  considerably  the  total  mortality 
among  the  non-abstainers.  On  the  other  hand,  Eng- 
lish life  insurance  statistics  show  the  difference  in 
the  mortality  rate  among  abstaining  and  not  totally 
abstaining  women  on  the  whole  to  be  very  slight, 
which  strongly  contradicts  the  assumption  that  a 
moderate  use  of  alcohol  must  necessarily  be  detri- 
mental to  health.  If  one  considers  that  this  differ- 
ence among  the  insured  women  (3  per  cent)  may  be 
quite  accidental,  and  that  in  England  some  women 
are  intemperate  while  others  are  uncertain  in  regard 
to  drink  habits,  it  seems  reasonable  to  infer  from 


42  SOCIAL  ASPECTS  OF  DRINK 

these  statistics  that  a  moderate  use  of  alcohol  in 
general  is  not  injurious  to  health. 

Recently  much  attention  has  been  given  to  the 
returns  of  American  insurance  companies.  They, 
too,  yield  evidence  of  a  shortening  of  human  life 
through  an  immoderate  consumption  of  liquor.  Be- 
yond this,  they  are  of  uncertain  value.  The  classi- 
fications generally  followed  have  been  so  unsatisfac- 
tory and  open  to  possible  errors  that  the  conclusions 
drawn  are  chiefly  of  speculative  interest.  Beyond 
doubt,  a  great  deal  still  remains  to  be  done  in  this 
field,  requiring  years  of  patient  labor  of  a  much  more 
intensive  and  continued  kind  than  any  hitherto  ex- 
pended, before  the  wished-for  far-reaching  conclu- 
sions can  be  drawn.^ 

vn 

ALCOHOI.   AND    ECONOMIC    DISTRESS 

Undeniably,  the  abuse  of  drink  results  in  more  or 
less  permanent  economic  distress,  and  even  a  mod- 
erate use  in  the  individual  case  may  spell  an  inde- 
fensible waste.  Citations  of  "  national  drink  bills," 
however,  are  not  especially  impressive  evidence  on 
this  point,  since  it  cannot  be  shown  that  money  spent 
for  liquor  would  invariably  be  saved  were  the  lawful 
opportunity  for  purchase  cut  off.     Moreover,  it  is 

*  For  a  summary  statement  of  the  inferences  to  be  made 
from  American  Life  Insurance  statistics  about  the  influence 
of  alcholism  upon  mortality,  see  Appendix,  p.  253. 


ALCOHOL  AND  ECONOMIC  DISTRESS      43 

demonstrable  that  the  sum  spent  annually  in  the 
United  States  on  different  articles  of  luxury,  such 
as  tobacco,  confectionery,  soda,  tea,  coffee,  and  many 
others,  far  exceed  the  total  sum  expended  for  alco- 
holic beverages/ 

We  know,  then,  that  economic  injury  wrought  by 
alcohol  is  very  great,  but  lack  definite  information 
about  its  extent  and  manifestations  in  different 
places  and  in  the  different  strata  of  society.  Efforts 
to  state  statistically  the  relation  between  poverty 
and  drink,  particularly  those  of  earlier  date,  are  in 
part  faulty  and  therefore  misleading.  Whenever 
the  investigators  found  indications  of  the  drink 
habit,  it  was  set  down  as  a  cause  or  probable  cause. 
But  to-day  it  is  understood  that  the  scientific  inves- 
tigator must  inquire,  not  only  to  what  extent  the 
individual  constitutional  defectiveness  causes  both 
alcoholism  and  poverty,  but  also  how  far  alcoholism 
results  from  distress  occasioned  by  a  variety  of  eco- 

*  The  value  of  intoxicating  liquors  of  all  kinds  produced  in 
the  United  States  and  imported  during  a  year  may  be  placed, 
in  round  numbers,  at  $610,000,000.  The  value  of  the  tobacco 
manufactured  and  imported,  of  confectionery  and  mineral  and 
soda  waters  produced,  and  of  coffee  and  tea  imported  in  a 
year  amounts,  in  round  numbers,  to  $832,000,000.  If  other 
articles  of  luxury  produced  and  imported  during  a  year  are 
considered,  such  as  jewelry,  precious  stones,  millinery  and  laces, 
artificial  flowers  and  feathers,  $230,000,000  must  be  added  to 
our  bill  of  luxuries,  which  thus  would  reach  a  total  of  more 
than  $1,600,000,000.  Of  course  numerous  other  things  can 
properly  be  classified  as  luxuries.  The  actual  selling  value  of 
the  articles  enumerated  can  only  be  surmised. 


44  SOCIAL  ASPECTS  OF  DRINK 

nomic  and  social  conditions.  The  results,  for  in- 
stance, of  the  investigation  into  the  relation  between 
poverty  and  drink  made  by  the  Committee  of  Fifty, 
which  have  been  received  as  authoritative,  and  for 
which  the  writer  had  large  responsibility,  doubtless 
need  to  be  revised  in  the  light  of  modern  teachings. 
All  recent  facts  brought  forward  by  social  workers 
and  investigators  affirm  this.  Ignorance  about  the 
proportion  of  distress  attributable  to  excessive  use 
of  drink  we  share  with  nearly  every  other  civilized 
country.  The  most  recent  study  of  the  subject  is 
one  just  published  by  the  Alcohol  Commission  of 
Norway  and  made  by  the  Central  Statistical  Bureau 
of  that  country.  The  inquiry  embraced  all  persons 
who  received  public  poor  relief  in  1910.  In  the 
cities,  drink  is  stated  to  have  been  the  chief  cause  of 
distress  in  4.8,  a  contributing  cause  in  1.8,  habitual 
drunkenness  during  earlier  years  a  cause  in  2  per  cent 
of  all  cases, — or  a  total  of  8.6  per  cent.  The  cor- 
responding numbers  for  the  rural  district  were  1.2, 
0.8,  and  2.5  per  cent,  or  a  total  of  4.5  per  cent. 
How  far  percentages  for  this  country  would  corre- 
spond cannot  be  stated. 

In  recent  years  no  extensive  study  of  any  magni- 
tude has  been  made  in  this  country  of  the  various 
factors  in  poverty.  We  do  not  even  know  the  extent 
of  economic  distress  for  any  one  state  or  for  its 
larger  subdivisions,  much  less  how  far  it  is  related 
to  drink.  It  is  significant  that  nowadays  profes- 
sional charity  workers  are  growing  more  and  more 


ALCOHOL  AND  ECONOMIC  DISTRESS      45* 

chary  of  defining  the  position  of  intemperance  among 
the  causative  factors  of  poverty,  recognizing  that  it 
frequently  has  a  background  of  ill-health,  crushing 
economic  conditions,  and  other  unfortunate  circum- 
stances from  which  some  persons  seek  a  mistaken 
relief. 

The  technical  and  inherent  difficulties  of  these  in- 
quiries are  so  great  that  mostly  a  dead  statistical 
material  results,  which,  however,  may  be  useful  in 
refuting  popular  fallacies.  Even  if  it  remains  un- 
charted, the  large  economic  misery  caused  by  alco- 
holism cannot  escape  attention.  Indirectly,  it  ef- 
fects economic  injury  by  impairing  the  physical  and 
moral  capacity  for  securing  improved  conditions  of 
living;  and  a  lessened  demand  for  better  things  pre- 
vents social  development  generally  from  attaining 
higher  levels.  Directly,  the  abuse  of  alcohol  leads 
to  conditions  of  disease,  loss  of  earning  power,  and 
unwillingness  to  labor.  Permanent  work-shyness  is 
not  under  consideration, — for  that  has  been  shown 
to  result  from  psychic  defects  acquired  through  men- 
tal ailments  rather  than  from  alcoholism  itself, — but 
that  idleness  which  frequently  occurs  after  a  periodic 
or  sporadic  "  celebration." 

Cumulative  evidence  to  show  that  the  habitual  use 
of  intoxicants  during  work  hours,  even  if  it  does  not 
degenerate  into  drunkenness,  tends  to  lower  one's  ef- 
ficiency, is  surely  not  needed.  Alcohol  and  work  do 
not  belong  together.  How  far  even  minute  quanti- 
ties of  alcohol  retard  the  normal  responsiveness  of 


46  SOCIAL  ASPECTS  OF  DRINK 

muscle  or  mind  when  called  upon  for  definite  tasks 
is  another  question.  So  far  experiments  with  the 
time-reaction  of  persons  under  the  influence  of  cer- 
tain quantities  of  alcohol  and  without  it,  cannot  be 
regarded  as  conclusive;  they  have  not  been  carried 
out  on  a  sufficient  scale  to  warrant  generalizations, 
or  with  due  regard  to  the  tolerance  toward  alcohol 
on  the  part  of  the  object  of  the  experiment,  or  with 
the  necessary  freedom  from  psychic  influences. 

As  a  factor  in  industrial  accidents,  the  abuse  of 
liquor  or  intoxication  by  no  means  occupies  the  place 
popularly  ascribed  to  it.  The  widely  published  state- 
ment that  drink  causes  more  than  one-half  of  all  the 
industrial  accidents  in  the  United  States  is  a  fabri- 
cation and  an  absurdity.  After  a  careful  summing 
up  of  all  available  official  data  on  this  subject,  Mr. 
Gustavus  Myers  says :  "  The  returns  show  that  de- 
liberate recklessness  or  intoxication  is  not  frequent 
as  the  cause  of  accidents,  and  in  fact  is  so  exceed- 
ingly slight  as  not  to  require  serious  consideration 
in  the  analysis  of  the  immense  number  of  accidents 
occurring  in  the  United  States  annually."  ^  The 
relation  of  drink  to  industrial  accidents  has  recently 
been  given  attention  in  a  study  made  in  this  country 
under  the  auspices  of  the  British  Association  for  the 
Advancement  of  Science.  It  was  found,  among  other 
things,  says  the  report,  that  both  output  and  acci- 
dent immunity  in  factories  vary  inversely  to  fatigue. 

*  Quarterly  Publications  of  the  American  Statistical  Asso- 
ciation, September,  1915. 


ALCOHOL  AND  ECONOMIC  DISTRESS      47 

"  In  fact,  our  figures  agree  with  one  another  to  such 
an  extent,  particularly  those  of  accidents,  that  we 
are  justified  in  speaking  of  a  '  normal '  time-distri- 
bution of  output  and  of  accidents,  or  considered  in- 
versely, accident-immunity.  The  shape  of  the  out- 
put and  accident-immunity  curves  for  a  five-hour 
spell  may  for  purposes  of  illustration  be  summarized 
as  follows: 


HOUa  OF  SPELL 

OUTPUT 

ACaDENT  IMMUNITT 

1st     . 

small 

very  great 

2nd  . 

very  great 

great 

3rd  . 

great 

fair 

4th    . 

fair 

1  small 

Sth    . 

1  small 

fair 

**  In  seeking  an  explanation  of  this  '  normal ' 
time-distribution  of  the  accident  rate  and  the  output 
in  a  spell  of  manufacturing  work,  let  us  concentrate 
on  the  illustrative  table.  Here  we  find  four  similar 
degrees ;  very  great,  great,  fair,  and  small,  succeeding 
one  another  in  both  the  output  and  the  accident- 
immunity  column,  though  earlier  in  the  spell  with 
accidents  than  with  output.  Now  both  output  and 
accident  immunity  vary  inversely  to  fatigue;  these 
four  decreasing  degrees,  therefore,  may  well  be  meas- 
uring an  increase  in  fatigue. 

"  The  only  other  possible  cause  that  could  by  itself 
explain  the  rise  in  the  accidents,  at  any  rate,  during 
the  morning  and  afternoon,  is  the  drinking  of  alco- 
hol before  starting  the  spell.     This  explanation  has 

1  Where  there  are  only  four  hours  in  the  spell,  strike  out 
the  last  output,  but  the  fourth  accident  hour. 


48  SOCIAL  ASPECTS  OF  DRINK 

been  advanced  by  the  Temperance  Scientific  Federa- 
tion of  Boston,  and  taken  up  by  certain  employers. 
To  prove  this  contention,  however,  it  would  have  to 
be  shown  firstly  that  the  most  debilitating  effect  of 
alcohol  on  control  occurs  just  about  four  hours  after 
its  drinking,  and  not  earlier  or  later,  and  secondly 
that  such  alcohol  drinking  is  a  regular  habit  among 
the  workers. 

"  The  first  point  is  far  from  established  either  scien- 
tifically or  from  every-day — but  not  necessarily  per- 
sonal— experience.  All  that  we  can  say  for  certain 
is  that  if  alcohol  is  taken  at  all  in  large  quantities, 
the  attention  and  muscular  control  that  avoids  acci- 
dents is  lost  immediately,  and  in  the  first  hour. 

"  The  second  point  can  certainly  not  be  established 
at  all  in  some  of  our  records.  The  women  cotton- 
spinners,  the  picked  men  workers  at  Hans  Renolds', 
at  the  Cadillac  Company,  at  the  National  Cash  Reg- 
ister Company,  and  the  girls  at  Jacob's  and  Cad- 
bury's  and  the  Denison  Manufacturing  Company 
are  all  certainly  not  drinkers,  yet  all  of  them  show 
the  same  accident '  curve  '  as  other  and  possibly  hard- 
drinking  employees."  ^ 

Were  alcohol  suddenly  removed  from  the  world, 
want  and  misery  would  unquestionably  grow  less  in 
numberless  instances;  but  the  day  dreams  of  prohi- 

*  The  question  of  Fatigue  from  t?ie  Economic  Standpoint.  Interim 
Report  of  the  Committee  drawn  up  by  Mr.  P.  Sargant  Florence 
for  the  British  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science,  1915, 
pp.  21-30. 


ALCOHOL  AND  CRIME  ^9 

bitionists  would  not  be  fulfilled.  We  should  still 
have  with  us  the  incompetent,  the  ne'er-do-well,  the 
physically  and  mentally  undersized  or  sick  who  are 
unable  to  get  a  strong  foothold  as  workers.  Above 
all,  industrial  stability  and  the  payment  of  a  living 
wage  are  not  by-products  of  prohibition.  One  might 
wish  that  instead  of  holding  out  ideal  promises,  the 
advocates  of  sumptuary  law  would  expend  a  little 
more  energy  and  wisdom  in  seeking  to  better  the 
conditions  of  living  which  tend  to  perpetuate  intem- 
perance, for  the  roots  of  the  desire  for  a  "  grief- 
breaker  "  {Sorgenbrecher)  are  deep  and  many. 

vin 

ALCOHOL    AND    CEIME 

The  assurance  with  which  intemperance  is  held 
responsible  for  the  mass  of  criminality  has  at  any 
rate  the  merit  of  being  quite  natural.  When  an 
offense  is  committed  in  a  state  of  intoxication  or  by 
an  habitual  user  of  strong  drink,  the  causal  relations 
seem  unmistakable,  even  inevitable,  no  matter  how 
infinitely  complicated  the  problem  appears  to  the 
criminologist.  The  many  men  and  women  who  popu- 
late our  minor  penal  institutions  on  account  of  habit- 
ual drunkenness  may  be  dismissed  briefly.  An  unin- 
telligent community  may  persist  in  regarding  public 
intoxication  as  a  crime  and  punish  it  accordingly; 
alienists  have  shown  that  the  greater  proportion  of 
habitual  inebriates  of  this  class  are  congenitally  de- 


50  SOCIAL  ASPECTS  OF  DRINK 

fective,  and  that  drink  is  but  a  symptom  of  their 
pitiful  state.  But  they  figure  heavily  in  our  prison 
returns,  and  provide  the  less  conscientious  reformer 
with  a  plausible  reason  for  incontinent  speech. 

Dr.  R.  W.  Branthwaite,  Inspector  of  Retreats 
and  Reformatories  under  the  English  Inebriate  Acts, 
says  in  one  of  his  official  reports: 

"  Sixty  per  cent  at  least  of  the  inmates  of  the  cer- 
tified Inebriate  Homes  show  defective  mental  capac- 
ity, but  only  about  two  per  cent  are  suffering  from 
insanity  or  acute  mental  diseases;  the  others  have 
been  defective  all  their  lives." 

In  the  English  inebriate  reformatories  to  which 
persons  are  admitted  who  have  a  previous  prison 
record,  the  proportion  of  congenital  mental  defect 
is  much  higher.  In  another  place  Dr.  Branthwaite 
says :  "  Even  the  most  mentally  sound  amongst 
them  (the  inebriates)  are  not  normal  persons;  the 
evidences  of  peculiarity  are  too  definite  to  be  ignored, 
although  its  character  is  difficult  to  define,  and  its 
location  obscure.  If  this  be  so,  it  follows  that  the 
inebriate  is  not  primarily  vicious  or  criminal,  but 
primarily  abnormal,  and  only  secondarily  anti-social. 
Most  of  the  offenses  he  commits  are  of  passive  nature 
due  rather  to  impaired  reason  than  to  wilful  inten- 
tion, or  to  imperfect  control — ^the  result  of  a  drunk- 
enness he  partially,  or  perhaps  wholly,  is  unable  to 
avoid." 

Also  in  case  of  well-defined  criminality,  it  seems 
easy  to  fix  a  relation  between  it  and  alcohol,  pro- 


ALCOHOL  AND  CRIME  51 

vided  we  are  willing  to  accept  the  personal  state- 
ments of  offenders  at  their  face  value.  It  is  charac- 
teristic of  humanity  generally,  and  particularly  of 
the  criminal,  to  offer  excuses  for  wrong-doing;  and 
when  questioned  about  his  drink  habits  he  eagerly 
offers  them  as  a  palliating  explanation  of  his  offense. 
Thus  it  happened  not  long  ago  that  more  than  a 
thousand  convicts  in  the  Eastern  Penitentiary  of 
Philadelphia  declared  drink  to  have  precipitated 
their  downfall,  and  solemnly  petitioned  for  the  enact- 
ment of  national  prohibition !  The  affair  would  not 
deserve  serious  mention  except  as  a  sample  of  the 
evidence  offered,  and  doubtless  accepted  by  many, 
as  proof  of  the  intimacy  between  drink  and  crimi- 
nality. 

Unfortunately,  most  of  the  current  statistical  ma- 
terial both  in  this  country  and  abroad  from  which 
are  drawn  sweeping  generalizations  about  alcohol  as 
a  crime  factor,  is  derived  from  personal  (more  rarely 
parental)  histories  as  told  by  the  offenders  them- 
selves. Until  within  recent  times,  evidence  of  this 
kind  had  the  excuse  that  none  more  trustworthy  was 
available.  Modern  psychopathic  diagnosis,  however, 
reveals,  as  we  shall  presently  see,  so  large  a  propor- 
tion of  sub-normal  individuals  in  our  prison  popula- 
tions, that  the  old  methods  of  establishing  causative 
crime  relations  are  rendered  obsolete.  Yet  institu- 
tions continue  to  catalogue  their  inmates  according 
to  alcohol  habits,  as  described  by  themselves,  and 
sometimes  reduce  these  to  percentages  for  the  instruc- 


52  SOCIAL  ASPECTS  OF  DRINK 

tion  of  a  public  incapable  of  discriminating  the 
truth.  In  some  states  it  is  prescribed  by  law  that 
prisoners  shall  be  classified  according  to  their  drink 
propensities.  The  purpose  is  self -evidently  to  fur- 
nish proof  that  drink  is  the  mainspring  of  criminal- 
ity ;  and  so  successfully  has  this  doctrine  been  dinned 
into  the  popular  ear  that  most  men  accept  it  unhesi- 
tatingly. 

Many  crimes  are  known  to  be  committed  by  per- 
sons while  intoxicated  or  because  they  are  intoxi- 
cated, especially  those  against  the  person.  But  the 
majority  of  crimes  are  offenses  against  property, 
which  for  their  success  require  other  habits  than  those 
of  the  confirmed  drunkard.  Those  who  prey  upon 
society  as  gangsters,  burglars,  pickpockets,  and  gun- 
men are  far  more  likely  to  be  drug  fiends  than  alco- 
holics. Police  annals  abundantly  testify  to  this,  as 
does  the  experience  of  those  who  are  set  as  guardians 
over  convicts.  These  are  commonplace  and  rather 
superficial  observations. 

Two  circumstances  refute  the  popular  view  of  the 
intimate  causal  relation  between  alcohol  and  criminal- 
ity. One  is  that  thousands  are  annually  committed  to 
reformatory  institutions  at  so  tender  or  youthful  an 
age  that  the  drink  habit,  if  indulged  in  at  all,  cannot 
yet  have  become  fixed.  At  most  there  might  be  a 
question,  in  such  cases,  of  parental  alcoholism,  which 
by  affecting  the  moral  as  well  as  the  mental  and 
physical  stamina  of  the  children  may  predispose 
them  to  a  criminal  career.     At  this  point,  however, 


ALCOHOL  AND  CRIME  53 

the  evidence  conflicts  with  the  second  circumstance; 
namely,  that  the  young  delinquents,  particularly 
those  of  our  greatest  centers  of  population,  are  ex- 
tensively recruited  from  two  races,  the  Hebrew  and 
Italian,  which  are  acknowledged  to  be  among  the 
least  alcoholized  in  the  world. 

The  other  circumstance  is  that  recent  psycho- 
pathic diagnoses  disclose  criminals  to  us  as 
beings  whose  habits  and  conduct  are  not  susceptible 
of  measurement  by  normal  standards,  because  they 
themselves  are  subnormal.  The  presence  among  both 
juvenile  and  adult  criminals  of  very  many  who  are 
feeble-minded  has  been  established  beyond  peradven- 
ture  for  some  years.  One  may  be  dubious  about  the 
extraordinarily  high  percentages  of  such  abnormal 
individuals  found  by  certain  investigators,  and  re- 
fuse to  accept  extreme  conclusions.  Yet  there  is  in- 
dubitable proof  of  the  existence  of  a  multitude  of 
offenders  who  may  be  addicted  to  drink,  but  in  whom 
the  habit  signalizes  an  abnormality,  perhaps  a  con- 
stitutional defect,  and  is  not  the  cause  of  a  more  or 
less  irresponsible  criminality.  How  far  in  these  in- 
stances parental  alcoholism  affords  an  explanatory 
moment  is  largely  unknown.  The  outstanding  fact 
is  that  our  penal  institutions,  and  particularly  the 
houses  of  correction,  are  populated  by  uncounted 
thousands  whose  alcoholic  habits  are  but  an  expres- 
sion of  a  deviation  from  normal  conduct,  the  real 
cause  of  which  is  to  be  sought  in  the  unfortunate 
physical  and  mental  make-up  of  the  individual.     A 


54  SOCIAL  ASPECTS  OF  DRINK 

competent  psychopathic  diagnosis  of  the  prison 
population  yields  a  classification  in  such  contrast  to 
the  conception  of  those  who  would  refer  most  crimi- 
nality to  an  alcoholic  origin,  that  an  example  or  two 
must  be  given: 

In  a  recent  survey  of  the  Massachusetts  Reforma- 
tory for  Males,  Dr.  Guy  G.  Fernald  found  that  of 
654  inmates,  but  42  per  cent  could  be  regarded  as 
normal,  and  of  this  number  only  14,  or  2.1  per 
cent  of  the  total,  are  classified  as  alcoholic.  Among 
the  deviates  there  were  61  alcohol  degenerates, 
9.3  per  cent  of  the  whole  number  of  inmates, 
but  how  many  of  them  had  become  such  through  the 
abuse  of  alcohol,  or  in  how  many  drunkenness  was 
but  a  symptom  of  a  congenital  defect,  is  not  known. 
The  morons,  feeble-minded,  and  subnormal  psycho- 
pathies, not  to  mention  other  groups  of  deviates,  out- 
numbered three  to  one  those  whose  condition  ap- 
peared related  to  alcohol. 

An  examination  of  the  738  inmates  of  the  Massa- 
chusetts Reformatory  for  Women,  conducted  by  the 
same  methods,  showed  42  per  cent  to  be  normal,  and 
72,  or  9.7  per  cent  of  the  whole  population,  are 
represented  as  alcoholic.  Among  the  subnormal 
inmates  95  are  classified  as  alcoholic  degenerates,  or 
12.8  per  cent  of  the  entire  population.  The  morons, 
feeble-minded,  subnormal  psychopathies  and  epilep- 
tics, not  counting  other  groups  that  depart  from  the 
normal,  number  289,  or  39.4  per  cent  of  the  total. 

The  two  Massachusetts  prisons  do  not  house  a 


ALCOHOL  AND  CRIME  5B 

population  materially  different  from  that  found  in 
penal  institutions  generally;  but  the  picture  they 
present  of  conditions  that  make  for  crime  is  in 
startling  contrast  to  the  popular  one,  and  points 
unmistakably  to  the  subordinate  role  played  by  alco- 
hol as  a  causative  factor  in  responsible  criminality. 
Because  the  earlier  investigators  were  ignorant  of 
the  great  extent  to  which  the  criminal  population 
consists  of  mentally  deficient  or  other  subnormal 
groups,  they  failed  grievously  in  the  effort  to  gauge 
the  causes  of  criminality,  particularly  the  part 
played  in  it  by  drink.  We  may  reasonably  believe 
that  if  alcoholism  should  disappear  there  would  be 
less  crime  in  the  world;  how  much  less,  no  one  can 
say.  So  far  from  knowing  the  exact  proportion  in 
which  drink  is  responsible  for  crime,  we  are  still  con- 
fronted by  the  question:  Assuming  that  alcohol  had 
never  existed,  how  many  and  which  of  the  criminal 
acts  perpetrated  during  a  given  period  would  not 
have  been  committed.'' 

In  the  present  heated  state  of  public  opinion  about 
the  drink  situation,  he  who  attempts  to  differentiate 
the  chaff  of  exaggeration  from  the  known  truth,  in 
writing  of  its  social  aspects,  must  expect  to  be  stig- 
matized as  an  advocate  of  drink.  To  the  open- 
minded,  however,  the  basic  consideration  is  not  how 
one  may  apportion  the  precise  percentages  of  injury 
done  directly  or  indirectly  by  drink, — the  evil  is 
patent  enough, — but  rather  to  learn  by  what  means 
it  most  surely  can  be  abated.    And  they  will  realize 


56  SOCIAL  ASPECTS  OF  DRINK 

that  to  fashion  safeguards  to  meet  supposed  social 
conditions  not  in  consonance  with  the  facts,  is  to 
court  an  unavoidable  disappointment  which  can  serve 
only  to  make  the  path  of  reform  more  difficult. 

IX 

THE    EXTENT    OF    INEBEIETY 

It  is  unfortunate  that  temperance  reformers  should 
regard  our  circle  of  knowledge  about  the  alcohol 
question  as  having  been  completed.  While  this  frame 
of  mind  prevails,  necessary  and  important  investi- 
gations are  not  likely  to  be  undertaken ;  and  there 
is  still  so  much  left  undone.  Although  more  or  less 
properly  assorted  evidence  is  massed  to  show  the  evil 
results  of  alcoholism,  no  attempt  has  been  made  to 
measure  its  probable  extent.  We  do  not  know  ap- 
proximately the  number  of  inebriates  within  any 
given  locality,  large  or  small,  rural  or  urban,  much 
less  within  a  whole  state.  Yet  reliable  information 
about  the  numbers  who  become  victims  of  the  drink 
habit  would  not  only  reveal  its  relative  importance 
as  a  social  problem  but  help  us  to  understand  the 
efficacy  of  preventive  and  corrective  efforts. 

To  depend  upon  the  customary  statistical  evidence 
purporting  to  define  intemperance  as  a  principal 
factor  in  most  of  our  social  ailments  is  to  ask  one  to 
accept  assertion  for  fact.  Just  as  untrustworthy  is 
the  proof  adduced  from  arrests  for  drunkenness. 
Ordinarily,  statistics  of  arrest  do  not  discriminate 


THE  EXTENT  OF  INEBRIETY  57 

between  true  inebriates  and  accidental  offenders,  and 
even  leave  us  in  doubt  about  the  actual  number  of 
individuals  concerned,  since  the  same  persons  may 
figure  many  times.  As  an  index  of  sobriety  in  any 
community  over  a  period  of  years  these  statistics  are 
for  the  most  part  worthless,  being  collected  under 
varying  standards  of  law  enforcement  and  amid 
shifting  public  ideals  in  regard  to  the  treatment  of 
persons  guilty  of  public  intoxication.  If  inferences 
from  statistics  of  arrests  concerning  the  state  of 
sobriety  in  a  single  locality  are  open  to  much  ques- 
tion, a  comparison  between  localities  on  the  same 
basis  is  misleading.  Hardly  two  states  in  the  Union 
operate  under  the  same  "  drunk  "  laws.  The  com- 
position of  the  populations  varies  markedly  in  dif- 
ferent localities,  as  do  also  public  toleration  of  visi- 
ble intoxication.  Thus  in  one  particular  city,  ar- 
rests for  this  offense  may  be  comparatively  few,  while 
in  another,  because  of  an  insistent  public  demand 
that  all  drunken  persons  be  removed  from  the  high- 
ways, arrests  may  reach  abnormal  proportions  with- 
out in  the  least  indicating  the  actual  extent  of  in- 
ebriety. 

In  a  few  European  countries  some  attempt  has 
been  made  to  find  out  the  probable  number  of  in- 
ebriate persons.  Dr.  R.  H.  Branthwaite,  Inspector 
of  Retreats  and  Reformatories  in  England,  has  given 
the  subject  attention.  He  says  in  a  recent  official 
report,  "  All  that  is  known  with  any  approach  to 
certainty  regarding  private  non-criminal  inebriates 


58  SOCIAL  ASPECTS  OF  DRINK 

is  that  somewhere  about  four  thousand  persons  resi- 
dent in  England  and  Wales  have  submitted  them- 
selves to  treatment  in  licensed  or  unlicensed  homes, 
or  have  endeavored  to  find  relief  by  resort  to  some  of 
the  best-known  cures  during  the  last  three  years." 
He  finds,  however,  that  owing  to  the  conditions  that 
govern  admissions  to  institutions  and  for  financial 
or  other  reasons,  it  is  unlikely  that  this  figure  reaches 
more  than  a  quarter  of  those  who  are  qualified  for 
treatment.  Most  of  the  managers  of  retreats  and 
homes  for  inebriates  of  all  kinds  maintain  that  not 
more  than  one  out  of  every  ten  or  twelve  persons  who 
apply  for  particulars  are  subsequently  admitted. 
"  Accepting  the  first  suggestion  as  more  probably 
correct  and  as  more  likely  to  under-state  than  over- 
state the  case,  a  round  figure  of  about  sixteen  thou- 
sand is  obtained,  which  is  as  close  an  estimate  as  cir- 
cumstances permit." 

Turning  to  the  question  of  the  lower-class  in- 
ebriates, who  commit  offenses  as  the  result  of  their 
habits  and  are  constantly  in  and  out  of  prison  in  con- 
sequence. Dr.  Branthwaite  thinks  that  there  are 
probably  about  thirty-two  thousand  of  this  class  to 
be  found  in  England  and  Wales,  and  he  concludes: 
"  This  seems  to  indicate  roughly  that  there  are  about 
forty-eight  thousand  inebriates  of  all  classes  in  Eng- 
land and  Wales  at  the  present  time  (1912),  or  about 
1.42  per  one  thousand  of  population,  of  which  num- 
ber about  sixteen  thousand  are  persons  in  private 
life — whose  habits  have  not  led  to   convictions   in 


THE  EXTENT  OF  INEBRIETY  59 

police  courts — and  thirty-two  thousand  known  to 
have  criminal  or  disorderly  tendencies.  Dealing  in 
round  figures,  this  means  in  relation  to  total  popula- 
tion approximately  five  per  one  thousand  of  the 
former  and  one  per  one  thousand  of  the  latter." 

Director  N.  Rygg,  of  the  Central  Statistical  Bu- 
reau of  Norway,  has  recently  made  an  attempt  to 
estimate  the  number  of  habitual  drunkards  in  his 
country.  He  took  as  his  material  the  medical  certifi- 
cates of  death  for  1911,  and  on  the  basis  of  the 
number  of  alcoholics  among  the  persons  who  had  died 
during  the  year,  he  endeavored  to  determine  condi- 
tions among  the  living  population,  self-evidently  pre- 
supposing a  higher  mortality  among  the  alcoholics 
than  in  the  general  population.  Of  course  this  is  a 
somewhat  insecure  method,  as  definite  data  are  lack- 
ing for  Norway.  However,  he  arrived  at  the  con- 
clusion that  in  the  whole  country  there  were  in  1910 
14,900  alcoholics,  or  2.5  per  cent  of  the  men  over 
20  years  of  age,  and  1,300  alcoholics  among  women, 
or  0.2  per  cent  of  those  over  20  years  of  age.  Nat- 
urally, conditions  were  found  more  favorable  in  the 
country  districts  than  in  the  cities. 

The  above  calculations,  although  they  are  but  ex- 
perimental and  cannot  be  regarded  as  authoritative, 
are  significant  of  what  may  be  done  in  this  field,  and 
raise  the  question  whether  current  ideas  about  the 
extent  of  actual  alcoholism,  meaning  thereby  con- 
firmed inebriates,  are  not  more  or  less  exaggerated. 
If  we  should  apply  to  this  country  the  ratio  of  in- 


60  SOCIAL  ASPECTS  OF  DRINK 

ebriates  to  general  population  estimated  for  Eng- 
land and  Wales  by  Dr.  Branthwaite,  the  number 
would  be  approximately  140,000,  which  is  likely  to 
be  a  considerable  over-estimate  in  view  of  a  smaller 
consumption  of  alcohol,  and  its  practical  exclusion 
from  vast  tracts  of  rural  territory,  not  to  mention 
the  many  prohibition  cities. 


THE   UNKNOWN    FACTOES   IN    ALCOHOLISM 

In  its  eagerness  to  delimit  the  social  injury  wrought 
by  alcoholism,  even  the  so-called  scientific  temper- 
ance literature  has  paid  the  scantiest  heed  to  the 
factors  responsible  for  this  malady,  or  has  satisfied 
itself  with  wholly  superficial  indications.  Therefore 
its  plea  for  remedial  measures  lacks  a  reasonable  fact 
basis,  resting,  as  it  does,  on  the  theory  that  personal 
habits,  no  matter  what  their  origin,  can  be  eradi- 
cated by  law.  The  earlier  temperance  agitations 
were  too  definitely  of  a  religio-ethical  character  to 
be  concerned  with  the  question  of  causative  factors. 

During  the  last  decade  or  two,  attention  has  be- 
come fixed  upon  the  factor  in  alcoholism  nearest  at 
hand,  namely,  the  alcohol  itself,  and  in  its  nature 
and  action  on  the  human  organism  an  explanation 
has  been  sought  of  the  manifestations  which  need 
correction.  Attempts  to  find  out  why  most  persons 
use  intoxicating  drinks  without  injury  to  themselves 
or  society,  while  others  abuse  it  with  the  most  lam- 


ALCOHOLISM'S  UNKNOWN  FACTORS      61 

entable  consequences  have  been  sparse  indeed,  and 
have  awakened  but  a  passing  interest. 

Alcohol  is  commonly  depicted  as  one  of  the  most 
insidious  and  dangerous  poisons  against  which  no  one 
is  safe.  Those  who  accept  this  view  naturally  hold 
up  to  scorn  the  moderate  drinkers  as  incurring  the 
greatest  responsibility  for  the  ills  others  bring  upon 
themselves  as  well  as  for  failures  to  enact  sumptuary 
law.  It  is  thus  plausible  if  deplorable  that  the  fac- 
tors of  a  social  or  individual  character  which  serve  to 
generate  an  abuse  of  alcohol  should  have  been  ig- 
nored and  that  so  little  effort  is  made  to  awaken  a 
sense  of  personal  accountability  for  the  use  of  in- 
toxicants. 

Of  course  the  inherent  difficulty  of  establishing  the 
causative  factors  in  cases  of  alcoholism  must  not  be 
minimized.  The  springs  of  human  action  in  a  def- 
inite case  cannot  be  laid  bare  without  a  thorough 
knowledge  of  the  individual  concerned,  of  the  envi- 
ronment in  which  he  lives  and  of  his  actions  for  which 
a  psychological  explanation  is  sought.  Frequently 
we  must  content  ourselves  with  probabilities.  In 
dealing  with  groups  of  persons  living  under  like  con- 
ditions, it  is  easier  to  account  for  impelling  motives 
as  one  may  then  look  aside  from  individual  peculiari- 
ties. Yet  in  order  to  understand  the  many  it  is  im- 
perative to  begin  with  the  individual.  Only  by  prob- 
ing deeply  into  many  individual  cases,  by  viewing 
them,  so  to  speak,  within  themselves,  by  seeking  to 
understand  their  actions,  by  being  keenly  alive  to  the 


62  SOCIAL  ASPECTS  OF  DRINK 

deviations  from  social  prescriptions  that  are  condi- 
tioned through  individual  circumstances,  is  it  possi- 
ble to  accumulate  evidence  wherewith  to  determine 
the  factors  in  similar  actions  attributable  to  natural 
divisions  of  social  groups. 

To  get  close  to  the  causative  factors  which  lead 
many  to  a  socially  detrimental  use  of  alcohol,  it  is 
obviously  necessary,  in  the  first  place,  to  deal  with 
numbers  of  alcoholics  who  have  been  selected  without 
prejudice  and  then  try  to  penetrate  their  lives  in  the 
most  intimate  manner,  to  reconstruct,  as  it  were,  a 
picture  of  their  earlier  development  and  to  gain  a 
clear  perception  of  the  actual  conditions  under  which 
they  live,  their  habits,  customs,  and  the  point  of  view 
of  their  environment.  To  limit  the  study  to  the 
drink  habits  of  the  individual  is  not  sufficient  and 
may  not  even  be  desirable.  When  thus  it  is  made 
possible  to  establish  the  driving  force  which  the  abuse 
of  alcohol  has  developed  under  stated  conditions,  it 
remains  to  ascertain  a  great  many  circumstances 
that  have  operated  as  contributory  factors  and  which, 
in  turn,  are  conditioned  by  other  circumstances 
whose  causative  chain  is  unending. 

A  purely  scientific  study  of  the  factors  in  alcohol- 
ism which  ignores  the  practical  side  will  not  lead  to 
progress.  Proper  emphasis  must  therefore  be  placed 
on  factors  that  are  not  only  important  in  them- 
selves, but  of  a  kind  that  yield  to  control  within  a 
reasonable  length  of  time.  The  factors  nearest  at 
hand  are  not  necessarily  the  most  significant,  for 


ALCOHOLISM'S  UNKNOWN  FACTORS      63 

they  may  be  far  too  complex  to  be  clearly  differen- 
tiated. Frequently,  a  study  of  more  remote  condi- 
tions is  necessary  in  order  to  gain  a  point  of  attack. 

We  are  accustomed  to  hear  city  life,  with  its  many 
temptations,  its  false  impressions,  its  bad  housing, 
and  unsuitable  economic  conditions,  spoken  of  as  a 
prolific  factor  in  alcoholism.  But  how  can  the  city- 
ward movement  of  population,  one  of  the  most 
marked  cultural  trends  of  the  present  day,  be  re- 
tarded.'' Surely  it  defies  regulation,  and  least  of  all 
can  it  be  made  the  object  of  special  solicitude  in 
temperance  reform.  Wholesome  influences  can  be 
brought  to  bear  upon  certain  phases  of  the  crowded 
city  existence,  but  to  be  effective  they  must  create 
conditions  making  for  temperance,  and  every  specific 
measure  taken  must  aim  only  at  advantages  that  are 
commensurate  with  the  sacrifices  demanded  of  soci- 
ety. In  short,  all  rational  social  efforts  for  reform 
cannot  help  affecting  favorably  the  anti-social  con- 
sequences which  flow  from  alcoholism. 

From  pulpit  and  lecture  platform  we  are  told  that 
many  persons  become  notorious  alcoholics  through 
lack  of  moral  perception,  a  defective  sense  of  re- 
sponsibility, an  uncontrolled  desire  for  pleasure,  and 
the  like.  But  it  is  not  helpful  to  point  out  these 
things  as  factors,  for  they  refer  to  conditions  that 
are  not  susceptible  of  regulation  by  legislative  expe- 
dients. The  purpose  should  rather  be  to  get  back  of 
such  conditions  and  their  consequences,  to  make  the 
object  of  study  only  to  seek  out  their  roots  so  that 


64  SOCIAL  ASPECTS  OF  DRINK 

a  vantage  point  may  be  gained  permitting  an  inquiry 
into  the  causative  relations  to  be  carried  on,  and  to 
reach  natural  conclusions. 

Frequently  it  is  necessary  to  consider  purely  nega- 
tive factors.  It  is  not  only  the  presence  of  obvious 
bad  conditions,  but  the  lack  of  actively  favorable 
forces  that  leads  persons  to  abuse  drink.  Success 
in  combating  intemperance  cannot  be  attained  sim- 
ply by  exterminating  defective  social  conditions, 
since  the  creation  of  new  conditions  is  needed  to  fill 
the  voids  which  would  make  themselves  painfully  felt 
were  the  opportunity  to  get  alcohol  seriously  cur- 
tailed. 

In  attempting  a  psychopathic  diagnosis  for  the 
purpose  of  determining  why  an  individual  abuses  al- 
cohol, a  very  special  difficulty  is  encountered.  It  must 
be  ascertained  whether  the  drink  habit  was  super- 
induced by  outward  conditions  (unfortunate  impres- 
sions received  during  childhood  and  youth,  the  actual 
environment,  occupation,  social  customs  and  rela- 
tions, and  imperfect  regulations  governing  the  sale 
of  alcohol)  ;  or  whether  it  expresses  an  individual 
peculiarity  or  defect,  that  is,  an  inherited  psycho- 
pathic condition.  To  put  it  differently,  the  question 
is  of  a  possible  deviation  from  psychopathic  normality 
of  such  a  nature  and  so  pronounced  that  it  may  have 
a  determinative  influence  on  the  power  to  resist 
the  temptation  to  drink  or  on  the  reaction  to  al- 
cohol. 

Just    what    constitutes    psychopathic    normality 


ALCOHOLISM'S  UNKNOWN  FACTORS      65 

cannot  be  defined  with  exactness.  In  the  effort  to 
determine  it  as  well  as  in  other  psycho-analytical  in- 
quiries, the  tendency  is  to  pay  heed  only  to  actual 
prominent  or  important  qualities  which  from  their 
very  nature  or  because  of  early  origin,  cannot  be  ex- 
plained as  being  due  simply  to  environment  and  thus 
clearly  reveal  their  endogenous  character.  To  dif- 
ferentiate psychopathic  peculiarities  is  particularly 
difficult  in  the  case  of  chronic  alcoholics.  Often  reli- 
able information  cannot  be  obtained  about  their  early 
development,  the  influences  under  which  they  grew  up, 
and  the  history  of  their  parents  and  their  relatives. 
By  so  much  it  becomes  the  harder  to  learn  whether 
the  defect  in  question  is  of  a  moral  or  intellectual 
character,  to  be  considered  as  the  result  or  as  a 
cause  of  the  abuse  of  alcohol.  When  not  under  the 
immediate  influence  of  drink,  most  chronic  alcoholics 
are  not  quite  such  normally  and  intellectually  lost 
beings  as  their  miserable  life  would  lead  one  to  sup- 
pose. It  is  possible  to  question  them  closely  and 
successfully  in  regard  to  themselves.  Frequently, 
too,  the  alcohol  itself  helps  out  by  disclosing  quali- 
ties whose  endogenous  character  is  patent,  for  in- 
stance, in  the  case  of  an  evident  pathological  reaction 
to  alcohol. 

Indications  of  degeneracy  in  alcoholics  must  be 
carefully  traced,  also,  because  the  usual  measures 
taken  with  such  persons  are  rarely  effective.  Alco- 
holic degenerates  need  in  many  instances  to  be  placed 
under  special  and  continued  care.    To  fill  our  prisons 


66  SOCIAL  ASPECTS  OF  DRINK 

with  such  individuals  as  has  been  done  is  simply 
inhuman. 

The  methods  hitherto  employed  are  ill  adapted  to 
show  how  far  alcohol  is  one  of  the  most  dangerous 
foes  to  the  workingman  in  economic  as  well  as  in 
moral  and  intellectual  respects;  reformers  simply 
take  it  for  granted.  Nor  do  they  yield  a  full  and  vivid 
insight  into  its  importance  as  a  factor  in  the  deterio- 
ration of  social  customs  and  standards,  poverty,  etc. 

Above  all  it  is  needful  to  clear  up  the  inner  factors 
that  make  for  an  abuse  of  alcohol,  for  the  role  played 
by  excessive  drink  in  society  at  large  is  not  merely 
that  of  a  cause  of  misery  but  very  frequently  that  of 
a  consequence  of  misery ;  in  other  words,  intemper- 
ance may  express  a  glaring  defect  both  in  the  indi- 
vidual and  in  the  conditions  of  society  generally. 

To  sum  up,  there  is  great  need  of  intensive  investi- 
gations following  individual  as  well  as  social  lines. 
We  must  learn  more  about  the  drink  habits  of  society 
and  chart  the  conditions  of  living  in  which  all  indi- 
viduals entering  into  the  investigations  are  found, 
within  certain  natural  boundaries,  for  instance, 
neighborhoods  alike  as  to  environmental  factors  in 
one  or  more  quarters  of  a  city,  in  different  occupa- 
tions and  callings.  Then  a  selection  must  be  made 
of  individuals  about  whom  information  is  to  be  sought, 
whose  mode  of  life  must  be  followed  for  a  certain 
length  of  time,  and  whose  early  histories  must  be  re- 
constructed in  order  to  gain  insight  into  their  present 
life.    We  must  obtain  cross-sections  of  society  within 


ALCOHOLISM'S  UNKNOWN  FACTORS      67 

well-defined  limits,  and  longitudinal  sections  of  indi- 
vidual lives  that  are  especially  characteristic.  Both 
methods  of  study  complement  each  other,  supply  a 
knowledge  of  actual  conditions  not  to  be  gained  in 
any  other  way,  and  yield  a  live  statistical  material 
which  at  the  outset  might  not  be  very  extensive,  but 
would  go  to  the  roots. 


CHAPTER  II 
DRINK  REFORM  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

I 

HISTORICAL 

Are  we  about  to  become  an  alcohol-free  nation? 
Or  must  the  long  struggle  against  intemperance  con- 
tinue until  mankind  has  reached  a  state  of  develop- 
ment in  which  its  present  weaknesses  have  been 
turned  into  strength?  There  is  no  lack  of  loud  trum- 
petings  in  anticipation  of  an  early  and  final  victory 
over  the  alcohol  enemy.  The  confident  predictions 
impress  the  uninformed  to  the  point  of  belief.  More 
cautious  observers  are  perplexed,  while  others  rush 
into  the  fight  for  their  own  ends.  The  attitude  of 
a  very  large  portion  of  the  public  toward  the  pres- 
ent stage  of  drink  reform  in  this  country  is  one  of 
drift,  more  or  less  marked  by  uneasy  forebodings. 
Too  many  lack  the  bearings  to  be  gained  from  the 
history  of  the  temperance  movement  in  its  various 
stages,  without  which  the  present  trend  of  things  can- 
not be  understood  nor  can  any  reasonable  forecast 
be  made  for  the  future. 

Moral  suasion  was  the  sole  reliance  of  the  tem- 
perance reform  in  its  earliest  manifestations.     To 

68 


HISTORICAL  69 

create  and  sustain  a  desire  for  personal  abstinence 
was  the  great  aim.  About  a  century  ago  enthusiasm 
for  this  virtue  surged  like  a  wave  over  much  of  the 
land.  But  when  its  force  seemed  about  to  wane,  there 
crept  into  the  minds  of  some  men  the  belief  that  to 
pillory  the  drinker  was  not  enough  so  long  as  the 
purveyor  of  drink  remained  unscathed.  Then  arose 
a  demand  for  force  where  suasion  appeared  to  fail, 
and  the  idea  took  root  of  compelling  temperance  by 
prohibiting  the  manufacture  and  sale  of  all  intoxi- 
cants. This  idea  found  its  first  full-fledged  expres- 
sion in  the  State  of  Maine  about  1850.  Many  advo- 
cates of  abstinence  deprecated  this  recourse  to  the 
*'  strong  arm  of  the  law  " ;  but  they  were  given  a 
scant  and  hardly  courteous  hearing.  And  there  was 
need  of  law,  for  the  saloon,  supplanting  the  old-time 
tavern,  had  in  many  places  become  a  menacing  insti- 
tution. Gradually  the  battle  for  temperance  shifted 
from  the  drinker  to  the  drink-seller  and  those  behind 
him.  Old-style  temperance  revivals  continued  for 
many  a  year,  to  be  sure,  but  the  suppression  of  the 
saloon  as  the  ultimate  source  of  the  drink  evil  be- 
came the  vital  issue.  Within  the  decade  of  1850- 
1860  twelve  states  followed  the  example  of  Maine  and 
enacted  prohibition,^  and  in  the  next  twenty  years 
(1860-1880)  Kansas  and  Rhode  Island,  and  by  1890 
the  Dakotas,  were  added  to  those  twelve.     Thus  in 

*  Illinois,  Massachusetts,  Rhode  Island,  Vermont,  Connecti- 
cut, Delaware,  Indiana,  Iowa,  Michigan,  Nebraska,  New  Hamp- 
shire, and  New  York. 


70  DRINK  REFORM 

the  space  of  forty  years  no  less  than  seventeen  com- 
monwealths embraced  the  prohibition   faith. 

During  the  prohibition  campaigns  of  the  earlier 
periods,  as  now,  the  anti-saloon  feeling  was  the  main- 
spring of  the  agitation.  In  this  detached  students 
of  the  history  of  the  prohibition  movement  concur 
without  dissent.  We  commonly  speak  of  the  Ameri- 
can saloon  as  the  offspring  of  rough  pioneer  condi- 
tions, and  such  it  was  more  or  less.  Whether  one 
looked  to  large  urban  communities  or  to  the  sparsely 
settled  new  states,  the  saloon  not  only  had  become  a 
center  of  inebriety  and  affiliated  vices  but  had  reached 
coruptingly  into  political  life.  How  far  the  deteriora- 
tion of  the  saloon  and  its  consequent  excesses  resulted 
from  its  being  a  proscribed  institution  which  it  was 
sought  to  control  by  crude  repressive  measures,  will 
be  discussed  elsewhere.  Here  it  is  sufficient  to  re- 
mark that  since  the  advent  of  the  prohibition  theory 
the  keynote  of  American  temperance  reform  has  al- 
ways been  warfare  against  the  saloon,  not  constructive 
effort. 

The  legal  measures  for  controlling  the  drink 
traffic  were  of  the  crudest  sort — poor  makeshifts,  the 
results  of  political  compromise  rather  than  of  states- 
manship. But  in  training  the  heaviest  fire  so  exclu- 
sively at  the  drink-seller,  the  appeal  for  personal 
abstinence  became  dangerously  subordinated  in  the 
temperance  campaigns.  Earnest  men  and  women 
bewailed  this  trend  but  were  powerless  to  stop  it. 
Yet  to  this  blind  reliance  upon  mere  law  to  effect  a 


HISTORICAL  Tl 

moral  change  in  the  individual,  we  may  trace  the 
undoing  of  many  a  seemingly  promising  prohibition 
victory,  won  at  great  cost.  Until  this  day  the  idea 
persists  that  once  the  outlawry  of  drink-selling  has 
legally  proclaimed  a  state  of  sobriety  must  follow 
automatically,  and  the  attempts  to  induce  temperance 
naturally  slacken  if  they  do  not  cease  altogether,  or 
find  expression  in  demands  for  the  enforcement  of 
the  law. 

Of  the  seventeen  states  which  between  1850  and 
1890  had  given  their  allegiance  to  prohibition,  only 
three  (Maine,  Kansas,  and  North  Dakota)  have  clung 
to  it  steadfastly  until  this  day.  We  need  not  con- 
cern ourselves  here  with  the  history  of  the  various 
enactments  and  repeals.  The  short  life  permitted 
prohibition  in  a  number  of  states  and  their  failure 
to  renew  the  experiment  after  a  test  are,  however, 
sufficient  evidence  that  the  majorities  behind  the 
law  were  more  or  less  of  a  fictitious  character,  or  that 
the  benefits  promised  did  not  materialize.  It  can 
hardly  be  objected  that  most  states  which  have  re- 
pealed prohibition  failed  to  give  it  a  fair  trial.  Mas- 
sachusetts had  about  twenty  years'  experience  with 
it;  Vermont  and  New  Hampshire,  many  more;  Con- 
necticut had  eighteen  years;  Michigan,  twenty;  and 
Illinois,  Delaware,  Indiana,  and  Nebraska,  shorter 
periods,  but  long  enough  for  a  demonstration.  Two 
states  may  be  said  to  have  compromised  with  their 
consciences.  Iowa,  after  a  long  test  of  prohibition, 
grew  content  to  "  mulct  "  liquor  dealers,  a  method 


72  DRINK  REFORM 

which  was  distinctly  contrary  to  the  spirit  if  not  to 
the  letter  of  the  fundamental  law  of  the  state.  Ohio, 
although  never  formally  enacting  prohibition,  pro- 
vided by  a  constitutional  enactment  of  1851  that  no 
licenses  to  traffic  in  intoxicating  liquors  should  there- 
after be  granted.  This  was  intended  as  a  species  of 
prohibition,  but  a  compromise  was  found  in  the  so- 
called  tax  law  which  prevailed  until  very  recent 
times.  Meanwhile,  the  states  that  continued  to  up- 
hold prohibition  did  so  largely  in  name.  Spasms  of 
enforcement  alternated  with  periods  of  open  viola- 
tions of  the  law. 

Yet  the  struggle  of  these  thirty  years  had  by  no 
means  been  barren.  In  spite  of  obvious  failures  of 
prohibition  exemplified  by  repeals  of  the  law,  laxity 
of  enforcement,  and  other  troubles,  the  temperance 
movement  up  to  this  period,  aside  from  any  influ- 
ence on  individual  lives,  had  one  great  achievement 
to  its  credit:  men  began  to  realize  as  never  before 
the  political  as  well  as  social  perils  of  an  uncurbed 
liquor  traffic.  A  return  to  the  conditions  which 
preceded  was  unthinkable.  One  result  of  the  search 
for  some  constructive  remedy  was  the  high-license 
law  of  Nebraska,  enacted  in  1881,  which  automati- 
cally reduced  the  number  of  licensed  places  and  thus 
was  expected  to  secure  better  control.  This  device 
was  eagerly  adopted  by  a  certain  class  of  reformers, 
and  variously  expanded,  for  instance  by  the  statu- 
tory limitation  of  the  number  of  saloons  and  a  host 
of  minor  restrictive  measures,  it  has  remained  the 


HISTORICAL  73 

foundation  stone  of  those  laborious  structures,  the 
modem   license  laws. 

But  a  far  more  important  and  valuable  heritage 
of  the  earlier  temperance  movement  was  the  status 
secured  for  the  principle  of  local  option.  While 
local  prohibition  was  applied  both  in  Europe  and 
the  United  States  prior  to  the  state-wide  experiment 
of  Maine,  the  distinction  of  legally  recognizing  the 
principle  that  the  local  community  has  the  right 
to  license  or  veto  the  drink  traffic  belongs  to  this 
country. 

For  more  than  a  decade  subsequent  to  1890  the 
usually  troubled  waters  of  temperance  reform  re- 
mained comparatively  unruffled.  The  prohibition 
propaganda  had  perceptibly  weakened,  notwithstand- 
ing the  advent  of  the  prohibitionists  as  a  political 
party.  Meanwhile,  much  new  liquor  legislation 
crept  into  the  statute  books,  though  for  the  greater 
part  of  a  trivial  nature  except  as  it  afforded  the 
local-option  principle  freer  play.  There  was,  how- 
ever, one  notable  departure  from  the  routine  tem- 
perance propaganda.  The  State  of  South  Carolina 
established  its  dispensary  system,  whereby  the  state 
assumed  supreme  control  of  drink-selling  for  public 
account.  In  time  this  experiment,  now  practically 
abandoned,  became  the  entering  wedge  which  eventu- 
ally rent  the  solidarity  of  the  liquor  traffic  in  the 
Southern  states.  The  dispensary  system  was  copied 
locally  by  Georgia,  Alabama,  and  North  Carolina,  and 
bade  fair  to  spread  widely.    Meanwhile  the  seemingly 


74  DRINK  REFORM 

dormant  prohibition  forces  had  slowly  gathered  new 
strength.  In  the  Northern  and  Western  states  the 
responses  to  their  pleas  had  become  fitful  and  of  less 
promise.  But  the  South  was  now  ready  to  lend  a 
willing  ear.  Several  circumstances  combined  to  make 
it  so.  The  saloons,  purveyors  of  distilled  spirits  al- 
most exclusively,  had  grown  notoriously  lawless; 
drunkenness  was  rampant,  and  behind  all  loomed 
the  specter,  partly  imagined,  partly  real,  of  danger 
from  the  uncontrolled  elements  among  the  Negroes. 
The  dominant  religious  forces  of  the  South,  pecu- 
liarly fitted  to  be  a  vehicle  for  temperance  propa- 
ganda, lent  their  fuH  strength  to  the  movement 
against  the  saloon.  Perhaps  more  important  still, 
there  had  come  into  being  an  organized  force,  manned 
by  professional  temperance  reformers,  who  took 
command  of  the  fighting  line, — namely,  the  so-called 
Anti-Saloon  League.  Victories  soon  came  apace.  In 
the  space  of  a  few  years  Oklahoma,  Georgia,  Ala- 
bama, North  Carolina,  Tennessee,  and  Mississippi 
outlawed  the  manufacture  and  sale  of  intoxicants. 
Alabama  later  recanted  her  faith  for  a  time,  but  has 
once  more  turned  to  prohibition. 

The  wash  of  the  rising  prohibition  wave  soon 
reached  beyond  the  South.  There  the  ground  for 
prohibition  had  been  sedulously  prepared  by  a  liberal 
application  of  the  local-option  principle.  The  modus 
operandi  was  unconcealed  and  simple:  first,  to  lay 
"  dry  "  as  much  territory  as  possible  by  local  veto 
and  then  to  follow  up  with  state-wide  prohibition. 


HISTORICAL  75 

This  method  of  working  toward  state-wide  prohibi- 
tion by  means  of  county-option  laws  has  been  pushed 
vigorously  and  in  some  places  with  notable  success. 

Of  course,  as  will  be  more  fully  noted  later 
on,  it  results  in  a  prostitution  of  the  principle  of 
local  option,  which  was  not  originally  intended  as  a 
device  for  gaining  political  ascendency,  but  as  a 
means  to  obtain  an  unhampered  expression  of  the 
public  will  in  regard  to  the  manner  of  dealing  with 
the  liquor  traffic. 

Long  ago  national  prohibition  could  be  discerned 
as  the  ultimate  aim  of  the  extreme  and  commanding 
element  of  the  temperance  forces.  But  now  it  has 
become  the  issue;  it  has  indeed  entered  into  all  the 
campaigns  of  the  last  few  years.  Still,  it  would  be 
hasty  to  declare  that  this  issue  was  the  decisive 
factor  in  the  most  recent  victories  for  prohibition, 
which  have  brought  to  its  ranks  the  states  of  Arizona, 
Colorado,  Oregon,  Washington,  Virginia,^  West 
Virginia,  Iowa,  Arkansas,  Idaho,  and  South  Carolina. 
In  the  four  states  first  mentioned  the  votes  of  women 
proved  a  material  aid  to  prohibition,  and  in  one  or 
two  of  them  the  Socialist  party  seized  the  opportunity 
to  revenge  itself  politically  on  certain  liquor  interests. 
In  South  Carolina,  the  issue,  under  law,  lay  between 
a  retention  of  the  dispensary  system,  which  obtained 
in  but  few  of  the  counties,  and  the  adoption  of  state- 
wide prohibition ;  nearly  all  the  counties  had  been  laid 
dry  under  local  option.  Virginia,  and  to  some  extent 
*  Becomes  effective  in  the  Fall  of  1916. 


76  DRINK  REFORM 

West  Virginia,  emphasized  the  race  question  in  the 
prohibition  campaigns.  Practically  all  the  large 
urban  places  in  these  states  returned  majorities  fa- 
vorable to  license;  the  rural  vote,  therefore,  won  the 
day,  and  it  must  be  regarded  as  on  the  whole  ex- 
pressing a  vivid  resentment  against  the  saloon  which 
is  not  quite  analogous  to  a  desire  for  general  absti- 
nence. Especially  in  case  of  the  southern  states 
prohibition  appears  to  be  enacted  for  the  benefit  of 
"  niggers  and  white  trash." 

The  most  recent  prohibition  laws  are  far  more 
drastic  than  their  prototypes,  not  only  in  respect 
to  measures  for  the  prevention  of  illegal  selling  and 
penalties  but  in  respect  to  the  privileges  of  importing 
drink  for  personal  use.  Formerly  the  home  use  of 
intoxicants  was  not  subject  to  statutory  regulation 
provided  the  supplies  came  from  without  the  state. 
Now  the  laws  ordain  minutely  the  quantity  which 
may  be  imported  for  personal  consumption  within 
a  specified  time,  and  official  authority  must  be  secured 
by  the  buyer.  In  effect,  this  amounts  to  a  crude 
method    of    licensing    individuals. 

n 

PRESENT    CONDITIONS 

Such,  in  broad  outline,  is  the  history  of  the  tem- 
perance movement  in  the  United  States  so  far  as  it  is 
reflected  in  legislation.  Of  its  minor  manifestations 
— the  campaign   for  compulsory  temperance  teach- 


PRESENT  CONDITIONS  77 

ing,  the  innumerable  restrictive  enactments  whereby 
it  has  been  sought  to  curb  excesses  of  the  licensed 
traffic  or  to  enforce  prohibition — there  is  not  space 
to  write.  When  it  is  asked  what  has  been  the  actual 
gain  for  temperance  from  the  ceaseless  agitation,  ex- 
hortation, and  forced  legislation,  an  adequate  an- 
swer is  far  from  being  simple.  On  turning  to  the 
Year  Books  of  the  Anti-Saloon  League  or  of  the  Pro- 
hibitionists, we  find  the  case  blandly  set  forth  thus : 
"  So  many  states  brought  under  prohibition  rule ;  so 
many  square  miles  of  '  dry '  territory  in  license 
states;  and  so  many  million  inhabitants  living  in 
areas  from  which  the  saloon  has  been  banished,"  and 
so  forth.  Such  superficial,  if  pretentious,  evidence 
is  unsatisfactory  and  hardly  merits  analysis.  One 
need  not  rehearse  the  oft-told  sordid  tale  of  per- 
sistent, gross  violations  of  prohibition  law  enduring 
in  some  states  from  one  generation  to  another;  nor 
point  to  the  vast  populations  nominally  living  in 
"  dry  "  territory  but  having  abundant  facilities  for 
obtaining  intoxicants.  Over  against  the  extravagant 
claims  that  more  than  half  of  the  population  of  the 
United  States  has  for  several  years  experienced  the 
blessings  of  prohibition  in  some  form,  stand  the  ir- 
refutable official  figures  of  the  production  of  alco- 
holic liquors.  By  successive  stages  the  output  of 
spirits,  beer,  and  wine  has  risen  almost  without  a 
halt,  and  more  than  kept  pace  with  the  growth  of 
population,  as  shown  in  the  following  statement  in 
round  numbers: 


78  DRINK  REFORM 


8PIKITB   WITHDBAWK 

TEAB8 

FOE  CONBUMPTIOK 

PHODUCTION  or  BEEB 

(milliox  oalxoxb) 

(miluovt  babbels) 

1900 

93 

39 

1905 

115 

49 

1910 

126 

59 

1914 

136 

66 

What  the  actual  per  capita  consumption  is  in  this 
country  no  one  can  tell.  To  measure  it  by  the  total 
number  of  inhabitants,  with  no  allowance  for  non- 
drinkers, — abstainers,  children,  rural  communities, 
and  so  forth, — is  not  only  ignorant  but  absurd  as  a 
test  of  the  status  of  temperance.  There  is,  however, 
one  undeniable  inference  which  must  be  drawn  from 
the  official  statistics :  ^he  steady  upward  movement  in 
the  production  of  intoxicants  could  not  have  taken 
place  during  these  years  had  both  state  and  local 
prohibition  been  truly  effective.  With  more  than 
one-half  of  the  people  alleged  to  live  in  dry  territory, 
one  would  logically  expect  consumption  to  be  re- 
duced, or  at  least  to  fall  behind  the  growth  in  popu- 
lation; but  the  contrary  has  happened,  leaving  en- 
tirely aside  the  increase  in  illicit  distillation  and  the 
growing  use  of  alcoholic  home  brews.  Common  sense, 
no  less  than  experience,  discards  the  explanation  that 
the  unquestioned  increase  in  consumption  is  attrib- 
utable to  the  license  states  alone.  It  is  even  less 
creditable  to  blame  the  influx  of  immigrants,  espe- 
cially when  one  recalls  that  those  of  recent  years 
belong  largely  to  the  abstemious  races  of  Europe. 

It  must  not  be  understood,  however,  that  the  con- 
sumption of  spirits  referred  to  above  rose  steadily 


PRESENT  CONDITIONS  19 

from  early  times  until  the  present.  On  the  contrary, 
the  official  revenue  statistics  show  clearly  that  in  the 
early  history  of  this  country  the  relative  consump- 
tion of  spirits  was  much  greater  than  the  present. 
A  decrease  set  in  about  1860  and  continued  steadily 
until  1896.  After  that  a  continuous  rise  took  place, 
which  by  1906  about  doubled  the  visible  consump- 
tion of  spirits.  This  was  not  a  fortuitous  happen- 
ing, but  coincided  with  the  large  acquisition  of  dry 
territory  between  1896  and  1906.  The  demand  for 
intoxicants  showed  no  signs  of  diminishing  in  conse- 
quence, but  it  could  not  be  supplied  by  malt  bever- 
ages, which  are  not  manufactured  within  dry  terri- 
tory (there  are  no  moonshine  breweries),  and  which 
are  too  bulky  as  a  rule  to  be  welcomed  by  the  illicit 
trade.  The  rise  in  the  consumption  of  spirits  since 
1896  is  thus  one  of  the  results  of  local  and  state 
prohibition,  for  prior  to  that  year  the  population 
living  under  actual  or  nominal  prohibition  was  not 
large  enough  materially  to  affect  the  consumption  of 
intoxicants. 

It  may  be  asked  what  has  caused  also  the  steady 
rise  in  the  production  of  beer.  The  gradual  substi- 
tution of  malt  for  distilled  liquors  in  popular  taste 
accounts  for  it  in  part;  but  the  largest  factor  has 
probably  been  the  great  influx  of  European  immi- 
grants. The  earlier  arrivals  were  generally  accus- 
tomed to  beer  drinking  in  their  home  lands,  and  those 
of  later  dates  from  wine-drinking  countries  resort 
to  beer  in  the  United  States,  notably  the  Italians, 


80  DRINK  REFORM 

Hungarians,  and  Greeks.  In  other  words,  each  year 
there  were  more  people  who  drank  beer.  The  cessa- 
tion of  immigration  on  account  of  the  Great  War 
and  the  recent  departure  of  many  of  the  later  ar- 
rivals coincide  with  the  slump  in  the  production  of 
malt  liquors  at  the  present  time.  Other  causes  have 
been  business  depression  and  the  addition  of  so  many 
prohibition  states. 

Fortunately  the  claims  for*  temperance  reform  rest 
on  a  more  solid  basis  than  the  one  commonly  vaunted. 
In  the  face  of  the  larger  and  more  widely  distributed 
use  of  alcoholic  beverages,  particularly  of  beer,  one 
may  confidently  assert  of  our  country  as  a  whole, — 

(1)  That  there  is  a  growing  tendency  toward  per- 
sonal moderation  and  practical  abstinence,  partly 
as  a  result  of  a  keener  appreciation  of  the  evils  of 
alcoholism  and  partly  as  a  result  of  the  amelioration 
of  social  standards  and  habits. 

(2)  That  the  public  attitude  toward  intemper- 
ance has  undergone  profound  changes  which  are  re- 
flected in  social  intercourse,  in  the  demands  of  trans- 
portation and  commerce  and  industries,  and  more 
and  more  in  legislation  against  inebriety. 

(3)  That  the  temper  of  our  people  as  a  whole 
does  not  support  the  saloon  of  to-day  as  a  desirable 
institution;  many  who  vote  against  prohibition  con- 
tend that  the  saloon  must  be  removed  from  the  coun- 
try villages  and  cross-roads,  and  they  find  support 
even  within  the  "  trade  "  itself. 

The    persistent   intemperance   that   pervaded    all 


PRESENT  CONDITIONS  81 

classes  of  the  population  a  few  generations  back  has 
been  sufficiently  documented.  Society  now  frowns 
upon  drink  customs  which  were  then  taken  as  a  mat- 
ter of  course.  No  one  who  observed  popular  habits 
on  our  various  frontiers  within  memory  of  the  mid- 
dle-aged, and  who  has  revisited  them,  can  have  failed 
to  note  the  transformation  wrought  in  modes  of  liv- 
ing marked  by  a  gradually  diminished  abuse  of  alco- 
hol, whether  the  communities  happened  to  be  under 
prohibition  or  under  license  laws.  In  particular  do 
the  changes  for  the  better  in  some  rural  places  stand 
out;  but  their  counterparts  in  urban  life  are  not 
wanting.  To  deny  this  would  be  to  deny  all  that 
observation  and  experience  teaches  and  to  belittle 
progress  in  a  hundred  directions. 

Contrasting  these  conditions  with  those  of  two  or 
three  decades  ago,  we  note  a  measurable  progress 
toward  sobriety  and  cleaner  living. 

To  whom  belongs  the  credit?  Doubtless  much, 
very  much,  is  due  the  general  temperance  propa- 
ganda, which,  however,  is  by  no  means  synonymous 
with  the  battle  for  prohibition.  To  lay  dry  so  much 
territory  legally  is  not  necessarily  to  be  counted  as 
an  achievement  for  temperance  reform  when  intem- 
perance remains  as  rampant  as  under  license,  and 
the  illicit  traffic  gains  a  hold  on  the  community  quite 
as  dangerous  as  that  of  legalized  traffic.  To  attrib- 
ute the  advance  wholly  to  a  movement  which  finds  its 
chief  expression  in  denouncing  the  iniquities  of  the 
purveyor  of  intoxicants  and  in  preaching  an  ideal 


82  DRINK  REFORM 

nowhere  obtained, — an  ideal  to  be  gained  by  force 
where  persuasion  fails, — is  to  deny  the  potency  of 
other  forces  making  for  betterment:  religion,  educa- 
tion, the  demands  of  industry  and  commerce,  better 
conditions  of  living,  and  so  on.  And  surely  these 
forces  are  quite  as  markedly  active  in  license  as  in 
no-license  communities.  If  it  be  given  no  man  to 
apportion  accurately  the  effect  of  the  manifold 
factors  that  contribute  to  more  sober  living,  one  can 
at  least  point  out  the  grievous  error  of  ascribing  it 
entirely  to  a  single  factor. 

However  gratefully  we  must  acknowledge  improve- 
ments, we  should  not  be  content  with  the  present 
state  of  temperance  reform.  Usually  high  planes  of 
living  are  reached  by  many  a  faltering  step ;  but  we 
are  told  now  that  temperance  will  become  an  inevita- 
ble virtue  by  the  simple  means  of  national  prohibi- 
tion. The  vociferous  clamor  for  it  is  a  logical  out- 
growth of  the  temperance  movement  under  its  present 
generalship,  yet  it  compels  the  admission  openly  made 
by  a  few  of  its  candid  adherents  that  state-wide  pro- 
hibition has  not  fulfilled  the  rosy  expectations  of  its 
sponsors.  The  superficial  reasons  for  this  lie  at 
hand.  In  defiance  of  *'  ironclad  "  statutes,  federal 
regulations  concerning  interstate  shipments,  the 
limitation  of  quantities  that  may  be  imported  for 
private  use,  the  fidelity  in  policing,  and  so  forth,  in- 
toxicants have  always  found  their  way  into  forbid- 
den territories  in  sufficient  quantity  to  frustrate  the 
object  of  prohibition  completely,  or  in  greater  part. 


PRESENT  CONDITIONS  83 

through  illicit  sales.  For  confirmation  one  need  but 
turn  to  the  sinister  figures  published  annually  by  the 
United  States  Commissioner  of  Internal  Revenue,  of 
the  persons  who  pay  the  federal  tax  as  liquor-dealers 
in  prohibition  states — let  alone  the  numbers  who 
avoid  such  risk — and  of  the  immense  growth  of  illicit 
distillation  which  the  Federal  government  seems  un- 
able to  check,  and  which,  according  to  official  testi- 
mony, has  been  a  concomitant  to  the  enactment  of 
prohibition  in  so  large  a  portion  of  the  South. 

At  times  and  in  places  a  periodic  degree  of  suc- 
cess attends  enforcement.  Kansas  has  recently  dem- 
onstrated this  after  failures  extending  over  thirty 
years,  although  the  claim  that  the  state  actually  has 
been  dry  since  1912  lacks  verification. 

West  Virginia  just  now  is  making  its  first  effort 
to  the  same  end.  One  lesson  has  come  home  from  the 
bitter  warfare, — namely,  that  liquor-selling  can  be 
effectually  suppressed  in  rural  districts  and  small 
urban  communities — and  this  quite  independently  of 
the  state-wide  law — by  means  of  local  option.  In- 
deed, long  before  the  principle  of  local  option  became 
incorporated  into  the  law,  the  sale  of  liquor  was  ex- 
cluded from  large  areas,  for  instance,  in  Massachu- 
setts, by  the  simple  expedient  of  denying  license  priv- 
ileges. There  can  be  no  argument  about  the  super- 
fluity of  the  country  drink  place,  as  it  does  not  meet 
any  irrepressible  demand. 

But  even  in  the  happier  instances  of  prohibition 
the  willingness  to  exclude  the  saloon  is  largely  condi- 


84  DRINK  REFORM 

tioned  by  the  opportunity  to  secure  liquor  for  pri- 
vate use.  In  truth,  nowhere  and  at  no  time  has  abso- 
lute prohibition  been  exemplified  in  this  country ;  and 
to  assume  that  with  every  opportunity  to  obtain  in- 
toxicants cut  off,  people  would  so  light-mindedly  vote 
for  prohibition,  is  to  flout  the  fact  that  human  na- 
ture is  essentially  the  same  the  country  over. 

In  forecasting  the  possibilities  of  absolute  prohi- 
bition, the  committee  of  the  Swedish  Medical  Society 
officially  deputed  to  study  the  question  (1912)  sim- 
ply dismisses  the  American  prohibition  experiments 
as  wholly  inconclusive  and  therefore  valueless  as  a 
guidance  to  other  countries.  Indeed,  impartial  and 
authoritative  observers  from  abroad,  like  Messrs. 
Rowntree  and  Sherwell,  Professor  Axel  Hoist,  and 
many  others,  have  been  impressed  throughout  their 
personal  investigations  chiefly  by  the  extent  to  which 
prohibition  is  being  violated  and  circumvented. 

How  the  situation  impresses  an  impartial  foreign 
observer  is  told  in  the  following  extract  from  the 
official  report  of  Professor  Hoist,  chairman  of  the 
Norwegian  Alcohol  Commission,  after  a  personal  in- 
vestigation made  in  1912.  He  says,  among  other 
things : 

"  Even  when  an  election  shows  a  majority  favor- 
able to  prohibition  it  is  impossible  to  draw  any 
definite  conclusion  from  the  number  of  the  majority 
votes  in  regard  to  the  number  of  the  electors  who  are 
actual  adherents  of  prohibition.  As  for  that,  these 
may,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  be  in  the  minority.     In  the 


PRESENT  CONDITIONS  85 

American  prohibition  states  it  has  repeatedly  been 
shown  that  a  number  of  persons  who  vote  for  prohi- 
bition do  so  not  because  they  are  personally 
convinced  oi  its  expediency  and  intend  personally  to 
contribute  to  its  enforcement ;  but  their  vote  is  di- 
rected by  ulterior  motives.  Partly  they  vote  for  the 
law  so  that  in  return  through  the  support  of  the 
prohibitionists  they  may  be  elected  as  members  of 
the  local  government  or  of  the  state  legislature. 
Partly  they  desire  to  gain  the  temperance  vote  when 
other  positions  are  in  question  which  in  the  states 
are  filled  by  popular  elections,  and  that  carry  eco- 
nomic advantage  or  may  satisfy  one's  ambition.  And 
when  these  persons  have  attained  the  positions  it 
is  observed  partly  that  they  personally  violate  the 
law  they  helped  to  force  through,  partly  in  the  main 
they  close  their  eyes  or  are  not  concerned  to  prevent 
others  from  transgressing  the  law,  as  they  do  not 
intend  by  their  vote  to  draw  down  upon  themselves 
trouble  or  enemies. 

"  Under  these  circumstances  it  is  not  strange  when 
in  the  states  one  hears  talk  of  so  much  hypocrisy 
and  so  many  broken  promises  that  one  involuntarily 
gets  the  impression  that  such  election  pledges  and 
their  consequences  may  be  specially  prominent  in  the 
states.  But  as  appearances  of  a  corresponding  kind, 
so  far  as  one  can  judge,  belong  to  the  shady  side  of 
present-day  public  life  generally,  they  must  be  con- 
ceived of  as  essentially  one  of  the  common  human 
weaknesses  of  modern  popular  government. 


86  DRINK  REFORM 

"  But  in  the  third  place,  so  far  as  the  states  are 
concerned,  politics  has  to  a  large  extent  entered  into 
the  prohibition  question  as  well  as  into  temperance 
reform.  Thus  at  the  last  election  in  Maine  in  1911 
prohibition  was  opposed  by  the  Democratic  and  sup- 
ported by  the  Republican  party.  This  is  a  direct 
consequence  of  modem  popular  government  and  is 
not  peculiar  to  American  society.  It  is  also  patent 
that  this  manner  of  proceeding  involves  considerable 
danger;  for  when  prohibition  is  given  place  on  the 
program  of  a  party  machine,  the  guarantee  that 
in  case  the  program  carries,  the  rank  and  file  of 
the  party  will  live  up  to  it  or  exert  themselves  to 
have  the  law  obeyed,  is  even  less  than  when  the  in- 
dividual citizen  pledges  himself  to  vote  for  it.  As 
already  remarked,  it  will  still  be  a  long  time  before 
a  violation  of  liquor  laws  is  regarded  by  the  great 
public  on  par  with  a  crime." 

in 

OUB    EXPERIMENTS   IN    PROHIBITION 

Habitually,  the  venders  and  makers  of  intoxicants 
are  blamed  for  these  unwholesome  conditions.  They 
are  guilty  in  a  degree;  and  we  justly  pour  out  upon 
them"  a  full  measure  of  wrath.  No  condemnation  too 
severe  can  be  visited  upon  men  who  for  the  sake  of 
filthy  profit  defy  constitutional  and  statutory  law, 
spreading  corruption  and  misery  wherever  they  go. 
Yet  that  they  usually  find  open  markets  beckoning 


EXPERIMENTS  IN  PROHIBITION  87 

them,  and  that  otherwise  decent  citizens  become  their 
partners  in  law-breaking  by  purchase,  argues  not  so 
much  an  irrespressible  demand  for  drink  as  indiffer- 
ence to  the  enforcement  of  prohibition. 

Here  is  the  festering  sore  spot  which  prohibition 
so  far  has  failed  to  heal.  It  is  caused  by  the  pres- 
ence of  large  hostile  minorities  (sometimes  turning 
into  majorities),  some  of  whose  members  may  be- 
lieve in  prohibition  to  the  extent  that  they  frown 
upon  the  legalized  saloon  and  yet  demand  a  supply 
of  liquor  for  private  use.  Unfortunately,  prohibi- 
tion rarely.  If  ever,  as  enacted  nowadays,  is  the  ex- 
pression of  an  untrammeled  public  conviction.  The 
methods  of  the  ordinary  prohibition  campaign  do 
not  require  this.  The  paid  propagandists  who  have 
assumed  leadership  are  content  to  cajole  where  they 
do  not  persuade,  through  threat  of  social  and  trade 
boycott,  or  of  political  extinction,  and  by  a  hundred 
other  devices  not  necessarily  calculated  to  instil  con- 
viction but  effective  in  gathering  votes.  They  sel- 
dom fail  to  recruit  strength  from  self-seeking  poli- 
ticians who  would  ride  to  preferment  and  office  on 
the  "  water  wagon,"  although  they  secretly  despise 
it.  This  blunt  but  truthful  speech  by  no  means  ig- 
nores the  very  many  men  and  women  who  vote  and 
work  for  the  extinction  of  the  liquor  traffic  with  per- 
fect single-mlndedness.  We  are  merely  seeking  ade- 
quately to  explain  why  prohibition  victories  are 
usually  short-lived  triumphs  for  temperance.  So 
much  detailed  evidence,  even  photographic,  of  illicit 


88  DRINK  REFORM 

drink-selling  and  of  public  intoxication  in  prohibi- 
tion territory,  not  to  mention  the  substitution  of 
drugs  and  other  stimulants,  has  been  presented  by 
trustworthy  publicists  that  it  surely  is  superfluous 
to  amplify  it. 

Everywhere  stands  out  the  ugly  fact  of  substan- 
tial minorities  opposed  to  prohibition,  exclusive  of 
persons  whose  creed  permits  them  to  vote  for  it  with- 
out any  intention  of  helping  to  secure  enforcement 
of  the  law.  Instances  of  states  repealing  prohibition 
after  a  trial  are  numerous;  but  its  complete  vindica- 
tion by  the  voters  after  a  satisfactory  trial  is  still 
wanting.  The  State  of  Maine  furnishes  an  illuminat- 
ing example.  When  a  few  years  ago  its  citizens  were 
called  upon  to  declare  for  or  against  the  resubmis- 
sion of  the  constitutional  prohibition  amendment, 
only  a  bare  majority  could  be  mustered  against  it; 
and  had  not  the  issue  been  clouded  by  political  con- 
siderations,— above  all,  had  not  the  illicit  traffic, 
aided  by  wholesale  liquor-dealers  outside  of  the  state, 
rallied  to  the  support  of  prohibition, — Maine  would 
certainly  have  shown  a  popular  vote  in  favor  of  a 
license  law. 

The  statement  has  been  challenged  since  it  was 
published  in  The  Atlantic.  Documentary  cor- 
roboration is  of  course  not  available,  but  the  writer 
has  the  information  from  indubitable  sources.  More- 
over, his  personal  investigations  have  assured  him 
that  the  illicit  liquor  dealers  of  the  state,  who  form 
a  large  and  lusty  brood,  opposed  the  change  to 


EXPERIMENTS  IN  PROHIBITION         89 

license,  insisting  that  notwithstanding  the  risk, 
greater  profit  and  political  pull  may  be  had  under 
prohibition.  It  is  true  that  the  question  of  adopting 
a  license  policy  was  not  directly  placed  before  the 
electors;  yet  every  vote  for  a  resubmission  of  the 
constitutional  prohibition  amendment  was  certainly 
an  expression  of  opinion  favorable  to  some  form  of 
legalized  drink-selling.  The  whole  point  is  that  re- 
submission all  but  won.  Incidentally  it  may  be  re- 
marked that  the  changes  in  population  in  Maine 
through  the  addition  of  foreign  elements  account 
significantly  for  the  anti-prohibition  sentiment  in 
the  last  election. 

The  mere  desire  to  extirpate  the  saloon,  although 
professed  by  a  majority  of  voters,  does  not  suffice  to 
uphold  prohibition ;  for  it  is  a  question  fundamentally 
involving  the  attitude  of  the  individual  toward  the 
use  of  intoxicants.  Until  the  mass  of  men  in  any 
state  have  become  convinced  (of  which  there  is  no 
evidence)  that  so  far  as  they  are  personally  con- 
cerned the  temperate  use  of  liquor  is  wrong,  or  are 
impelled  to  personal  abstinence  through  solicitude 
for  weaker  brethren,  prohibition  must  continue  to 
suffer  from  what  for  the  present  appears  to  be  an 
insuperable  limitation.  Human  nature  will  not  take 
seriously  a  ban  upon  an  indulgence  regarded  as  per- 
sonally permissible.  The  drink  question  is  not  a 
plain  moral  issue;  therefore  we  submit  it  to  popular 
vote,  a  thing  never  done  with  matters  involving  in- 
herent rights  and  wrongs.    We  do  not  debate  whether 


90  DRINK  REFORM 

various  forms  of  crime  and  vice  shall  be  suppressed, 
but  only  the  methods  of  suppressing  them.  No  one, 
for  instance,  challenges  the  wisdom  of  forbidding  by 
legislation  the  sale  of  habit-forming  drugs  except  for 
medical  use.  But  prohibition  against  drink  is  in  no 
sense  analogous,  for  it  denies  the  liberty  to  indulge 
in  things  which,  if  used  moderately,  are  not  neces- 
sarily open  to  condemnation. 

Yet  intelligent  people  insist  upon  the  perfect  anal- 
ogy between  prohibiting  the  sale  of  alcohol  and  the 
sale  of  drugs,  whose  moderate  use  (if  there  were  such 
a  thing)  is  unqualifiedly  injurious.  They  are  un- 
conscious of  their  inconsistency  in  that  they  are  the 
stanchest  upholders  of  local  option,  which  recognizes 
it  as  proper  to  legalize  the  sale  of  intoxicants  if  a 
majority  favor  it — a  procedure  they  would  not 
dream  of  permitting  in  regard  to  opium  and  cocaine. 

Were  the  line  of  cleavage  what  absolutists  con- 
tend, we  should  not  witness  the  numberless  evasions 
and  violations  of  the  law  which  otherwise  straight- 
walking  persons  permit  themselves.  The  writer  well 
remembers  witnessing  a  justice  of  the  Supreme  Court 
of  the  United  States  persuading  a  black  railway  por- 
ter to  break  a  state  prohibitory  law  because  he  felt, 
or  imagined,  the  need  of  something  stronger  than 
water,  while  passing  through  "  dry  "  territory.  The 
much  perplexed  negro  offered  this  defense :  "  What 
could  ah  say  wen  de  co't  compel  me  to  ? "  The 
elevated  personage  in  question  is  but  a  type  of  un- 
told numbers   in  humbler  walks  who  without  com- 


EXPERIMENTS  IN  PROHIBITION         91 

punction  break  the  one  law  against  drink  while  they 
implicitly  obey  others.  Patrons  of  kitchen  bars  or 
the  more  pretentious  saloon  drug-stores  in  forbidden 
places  are  not  alone  guilty  in  this  attitude.  It  is 
shared  commonly  by  men  whose  standing  no  one 
would  challenge,  and  who  not  seldom  admit  an  im- 
pulse to  circumvent  prohibition  whenever  they  find 
themselves  in  dry  territory,  not  from  an  active  crav- 
ing for  drink  nor  from  idle  curiosity  about  the  man- 
ner in  which  the  law  may  be  enforced,  but  rather 
from  natural  resentment  against  dictation  affecting 
their  personal  habits. 

Even  the  great  institutions  of  learning  have  been 
known  to  make  exceptions  (perhaps  for  the  sake  of 
obviating  a  greater  evil)  when  confronted  with  the 
question  of  strictly  enforcing  liquor  legislation  within 
their  own  domain.  This  compounding  with  wrong 
is  facilitated  by  the  law  itself,  which  visits  its  whole 
strength  upon  the  vender  of  the  forbidden  goods,  al- 
though he  be  in  fact  but  their  hired  custodian,  while 
the  purchaser  goes  scot  free. 

The  common  lack  of  whole-hearted  acceptance  of 
the  very  essence  of  the  principle  of  prohibition  is  not 
merely  a  firm  obstacle  to  rigid  enforcement,  but  proof 
that  men  habitually  distinguish  between  the  obliga- 
tions imposed  by  prohibition  and  other  laws  which 
the  community  conscience  insists  shall  be  respected. 
Men  who  speak  and  vote  for  prohibition  in  Congress 
or  in  state  legislatures  do  not  lose  caste  In  society, 
because  they  violate  the  very  statute  to  which  they 


92  DRINK  REFORM 

have  subscribed  as  soon  as  it  happens  to  incon- 
venience them.  Yet  the  same  persons  would  be  con- 
demned for  ordinary  criminal  acts.  The  strict 
moralist  cannot  justify  this  attitude.  We  are  here 
purely  concerned  with  the  fact  that  it  exists  and  that 
it  accounts  for  the  inherent  weakness  of  the  efforts 
to  change  habits  and  points  of  view  by  statutory 
enactment.  Perhaps  no  more  disquieting  illustra- 
tion of  the  point  to  be  driven  home  can  be  found 
than  the  frequent  political  contests  in  prohibition 
states  centering  in  the  question  whether  the  law 
against  drink-selling  shall  be  enforced  or  not.  Gov- 
ernors, state  legislatures,  and  numerous  local  offi- 
cials are  frequently  elected  on  a  platform  of  non- 
enforcement.  It  would  be  shallow-minded  to  say  that 
such  exhibitions  of  callousness  to  the  dictates  of  law 
are  due  solely  to  the  machinations  of  those  pecuni- 
arily interested  in  drink-selling,  or  to  the  degrada- 
tion of  this  or  that  political  party.  No,  it  is  rooted 
in  the  fact  that  so  many  differentiate  between  viola- 
tion of  prohibition  and  ordinary  transgressions.  In 
passing,  it  may  be  said  that  we  touch  here  upon  one 
of  the  fundamental  ills  engendered  by  unenforced  pro- 
hibition, namely  that  it  focuses  political  thought 
and  activity  of  the  community,  not  upon  policies  for 
civic  advancement,  but,  mirabile  dictu,  upon  the  ques- 
tion whether  constitutional  and  statutory  enactments 
shall  be  respected ! 

There  is,  then,  no  real  analogy  between  the  viola- 
tion of  prohibition  and  that  of  other  laws  which  by 


EXPERIMENTS  IN  PROHIBITION         93 

common  consent  have  become  dead  letters.  In  the 
course  of  time  we  slough  off  considerable  legislation 
without  formal  repeal,  because  we  have  outgrown  it, 
but  the  fact  does  not  necessarily  argue  disrespect 
for  law.  On  the  other  hand,  there  is  at  least  a  con- 
stant pretense  of  enforcing  prohibition,  and  it  can- 
not be  openly  flaunted  without  the  connivance  of 
officials. 

To  some  extent  conspicuous  evils  accompanying 
unenforced  prohibition,  such  as  the  corruption  of 
the  police  and  other  officials,  the  schooling  of  entire 
generations  in  obtaining  a  livelihood  through  viola- 
tion of  law,  and  the  constant  presence  of  alcoholism, 
are  admitted  even  by  the  sponsors  of  this  method  of 
temperance  reform.  Naturally,  the  blame  for  such 
lamentable  conditions  is  laid  upon  the  liquor  traffic 
in  other  states,  as  ultimately  responsible;  and  there 
follows  the  argument :  "  Forbid  by  national  law  the 
manufacture  and  importation  for  purposes  of  sale 
of  all  intoxicants,  break  up  the  legalized  liquor  traf- 
fic, and  these  ills  will  disappear ;  the  Federal  govern- 
ment has  stamped  out  slavery  and  polygamy,  and 
will  soon  put  an  end  to  the  drug  traffic;  it  can  do 
the  same  with  liquor."  Thus  runs  the  speech,  and 
hardly  a  day  passes  without  its  repetition  in  some 
form  from  the  pulpit  and  platform. 


94i  DRINK  REFORM 


IV 

NATIONAL   PROHIBITION 

Let  US  examine  a  bit  closer  this  ultimate  panacea 
for  the  drink  evil,  not  in  the  spirit  of  belittling  its 
honest  advocates,  but  in  the  spirit  of  one  who  would 
sound  for  possible  shoals  upon  which  temperance  re- 
form may  yet  be  stranded.  The  procedure  by  which 
national  prohibition  might  become  a  reality  is  pretty 
well  known.  The  Congress  must  by  a  two-thirds  vote 
in  both  its  houses  submit  an  amendment  to  the 
Constitution  forbidding  for  all  time  the  manufacture 
and  importation  for  sale  of  intoxicants  of  every  kind ; 
then  the  amendment  must  be  accepted  by  three- 
fourths  of  the  states.  Already  nineteen  states  are 
counted  in  the  prohibition  column,  and  that  the 
seventeen  others  necessary  for  the  required  majority 
can  be  won  over  is  of  course  possible. 

But  let  us  note  that  the  nineteen  prohibition  states 
are  mainly  agricultural  communities,  only  twenty- 
six  per  cent  of  their  populations  being  urban,  and 
that  they  have  outlawed  the  drink  traffic  through  the 
rural  vote;  that  is,  the  areas  which  under  normal 
conditions  would  not  be  encumbered  by  saloons  have 
held  the  balance  of  power.  The  large  cities  invari- 
ably reject  prohibition;  thus  in  recent  elections 
otherwise  successful,  Seattle,  Tacoma,  Spokane, 
Portland,  and  Denver  voted  against  prohibition.  The 
likelihood   of  winning   over   the   greater  centers   of 


NATIONAL  PROHIBITION  95 

population  elsewhere  is  far  less.  In  short,  the  more 
urban  a  state  is,  the  greater  the  probability  that  it 
will  oppose  in  particular  national  prohibition.  Now 
comparatively  few  states  contain  an  overwhelming 
or  preponderating  urban  population  and  one  some- 
what generally  distributed.  Among  them  must  be 
counted  Massachusetts,  Rhode  Island,  Connecticut, 
New  York,  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  Delaware, 
Maryland,  Ohio,  Illinois,  Missouri,  and  California; 
also  the  District  of  Columbia.  These  states,  sixty- 
eight  per  cent  of  whose  population  is  urban,  with  the 
District  of  Columbia,  contain  more  than  forty-five 
million  inhabitants,  or  very  nearly  one-half  of  the 
total  number  in  the  United  States,  as  against  twenty- 
seven  million  in  the  avowed  prohibition  states.  Yet, 
under  the  rule  governing  the  acceptance  of  a  consti- 
tutional amendment  dealing  with  a  matter  of  public 
morals,  these  twelve  "  sovereign "  commonwealths 
might  be  coerced  to  accept  prohibition,  and  that 
principally  by  a  more  or  less  remote  rural 
vote! 

To  legislate  the  saloon  out  of  country  districts  is 
comparatively  simple  and  does  not  require  a  national 
amendment.  But  drink-selling  is  primarily  a  city 
problem  which  will  not  disappear  merely  because 
rural  majorities  say  it  shall,  regardless  of  the  wishes 
of  the  city  folk.  From  the  very  nature  of  its  object, 
prohibition  is  inherently  difficult  to  enforce  and  when 
it  is  foisted  upon  a  community  from  without  its  ill 
fate  is  foreordained.    The  philosophy  of  the  present- 


96  DRINK  REFORM 

day  temperance  leaders  does  not  contemplate  such 
affirmation  of  every-day  experience,  for  it  is  built 
upon  the  doctrine  that  sobriety  can  be  created  by 
law,  i.e.,  coercion ;  hence  the  marshaling  of  the  rural 
forces  against  the  urban  minorities. 

Moreover,  it  may  conservatively  be  assumed  that 
even  in  the  prohibition  states  one-third  of  the  popu- 
lation is  opposed  to  forced  abstinence,  and  that  the 
same  proportion  holds  good  in  the  seventeen  states 
which  it  is  necessary  to  win  over  to  secure  national 
prohibition.  These  thirds,  added  to  the  number  in 
the  states  one  must  anticipate  as  opposed  to  prohibi- 
tion, would  equal  sixty-three  millions  of  the  total 
population.  Thus  a  constitutional  amendment  might 
be  secured  against  the  expressed  will  of  a  large  ma- 
jority of  the  citizens  of  the  United  States.  This  is 
by  no  means  a  fanciful  speculation,  but  a  condition 
confronting  the  intelligent  voter  which  should  lead 
him  to  ask  whether  such  temperance  reform  by  com- 
pulsion does  not  carry  the  germ  of  its  own  destruc- 
tion. 

There  are,  however,  more  obvious  barriers  to  the 
success  of  national  prohibition.  Under  it  the  now 
legal  manufacture  of  liquor  for  sale  would  automat- 
ically cease.  The  seal  placed  upon  the  distilleries  and 
breweries  of  to-day  by  the  Federal  government 
would  not  be  broken.  Customs  inspectors  would 
guard  against  the  illicit  importation  of  liquors 
through  the  usual  channels.  Yet  should  we  thereby 
overcome  the  evils  for  which  the  legalized  liquor  traf- 


NATIONAL  PROHIBITION  97 

fie   is   cursed — corruption   and  political  graft,   and 
above  all  else  the  scourge  of  alcoholism? 

Other  tremendous  factors  are  to  be  reckoned  with 
in  every  community  that  is  hostile  or  even  lukewarm 
to  national  prohibition.  In  the  first  instance  there 
is  the  ease  with  which  alcohol  is  produced  and  the 
consequent  extraordinary  temptation  to  make  "  easy 
money  "  through  its  sale.  The  material  for  the  pro- 
duction of  alcohol  is  well-nigh  universal.  At  the  cost 
of  a  few  cents,  a  gallon  of  alcohol  can  be  obtained 
from  peat.  Nothing  is  simpler  than  to  make  and 
operate  home  apparatus  for  distilling  spirits  from 
potatoes  or  grain.  The  fruits  of  the  orchard  and  the 
inexhaustible  supplies  of  berries  of  the  woods  and 
fields,  plus  sugar,  will  yield  alcoholic  beverages  of 
deadly  strength.  And  let  us  bear  in  mind  that  the 
home  manufacture  of  alcohol  would  be  legal  under 
the  proposed  amendment  to  the  Constitution  so  long 
as  the  product  is  not  placed  on  sale.  The  Federal 
government  has  already  proved  its  inability  to  sup- 
press "  moonshining,"  especially  in  the  prohibition 
states ;  and  to  assume  that,  at  a  time  when  even  fiscal 
interest  in  preventing  illegal  distillation  would  be 
lacking,  it  could  close  the  million  avenues  through 
which  alcohol  in  its  most  noxious  forms  might  find 
the  way  to  the  consumer,  requires  an  optimism  born 
of  sheer  ignorance.  The  era  of  home  distillation 
was  the  period  of  the  greatest  intemperance  Sweden 
ever  knew.  It  was  in  part  to  prevent  the  ever-grow- 
ing home  manufacture  of  vodka  and  the  consequent 


98  DRINK  REFORM 

appalling  drunkenness  that  Russia  undertook  the 
monopoly  of  the  manufacture  of  this  drink,  which 
it  has  lately  abandoned  only  to  find  that  the  illegal 
production  is  once  more  becoming  a  menace. 

The  great  issue  is  to  prevent  alcoholism ;  and  this 
is  not  to  be  accomplished  simply  by  allowing  con- 
sumption under  a  different  form.  The  present  ac- 
quiescence in  so-called  prohibition  in  certain  states 
is  largely  conditioned  by  the  fact  that  alcohol  has 
always  been  accessible  through  private  importation, 
state  liquor  agencies,  patent  medicines,  and  so  forth, 
not  to  mention  illicit  selling.  Imagine  the  now 
legally  accessible  sources  of  supply  cut  off,  but  with 
every  facility  for  home  production  of  intoxicants 
left,  and  one  can  easily  forecast  a  disaster  to  actual 
temperance  reform  which  could  hardly  be  repaired. 

Under  national  prohibition  the  illicit  sale  of  alco- 
holic drinks  would  be  proportioned  to  the  ease  with 
which  they  are  produced.  The  lure  of  gain  is 
stronger  than  fear  of  an  unpopular  law.  Certainly 
the  Federal  government  could  not  employ  an  army 
vast  enough  to  prevent  illegal  selling,  even  if  it  had 
authority  to  usurp  the  police  power  of  the  local  com- 
munity or  state.  The  local  police  would  prove  a 
vain  dependence  in  the  hundreds  of  municipalities 
opposed  to  the  law.  They,  too,  would  be  set  upon 
by  temptation  or  cease  activity  in  the  face  of  juries 
hostile  to  conviction.  This  is  not  a  fantastic  picture 
of  probable  conditions,  but  one  drawn  from  long  ex- 
perience of  prohibition   under   circumstances   much 


NATIONAL  PROHIBITION  99 

more  conducive  to  fair  success.  Professor  Hoist  ob- 
serves :  "  It  is  only  human  that  several  of  the  con- 
ditions mentioned  before — quite  apart  from  what  has 
been  said  about  the  sheriffs  and  corruption — must 
have  its  influence  on  the  functionaries  of  the  police. 
In  spite  of  the  result  which  the  popular  election 
relative  to  prohibition  had  for  the  respective  com- 
munities, it  is  simply  human  that  the  higher  officials 
of  the  police  in  American  prohibition  cities  are  loath 
to  take  measures  against  violations  of  the  law,  when, 
for  instance,  even  members  of  the  local  government 
circumvent  it.  And  regardless  of  the  result  of  the 
election,  it  is  quite  as  human  that  also  the  lower 
members  of  the  police  force  are  reluctant  to  be  more 
active  than  absolutely  necessary  since  the  social  cir- 
cles which  they  frequent  when  off  duty  are  inimical 
to  the  law." 

The  demand  for  stimulants  is  not  amenable  to  a 
fiat  of  the  law;  and  whenever  demand  lags,  one  can 
trust  the  illicit  vender  artificially  to  stimulate  it.  He 
will  not  depend  solely  upon  the  cravings  of  the  alco- 
holic, which — contrary  to  the  popular  conception — 
quickly  cease  in  the  absence  of  what  they  feed  upon 
The  young  and  the  weak  would  be  found  as  ready 
victims  to  the  seductions  of  alcohol  as  they  are  now; 
and  these  seductions  would  reach  them  under  forms 
far  more  tempting  and  dangerous  than  at  present. 

Were  the  habitual  or  occasional  demand  of  mil- 
lions for  alcoholic  stimulants  merely  fictitious,  it 
could  be  made  to  disappear  by  legal  magic  and  the 


100  DRINK  REFORM 

battle  would  have  been  won  long  ago.  But  the  affair 
is  not  so  desperately  simple.  Physiologically  as  well 
as  psychologically,  it  is  unthinkable  that  the  transi- 
tion of  millions  from  the  habitual  consumption  of 
alcohol  to  sudden  abstinence,  can  be  effected  without 
revolutionizing  the  very  mode  of  life.  This  is  a  con- 
dition that  defies  law.  There  lies  in  this  considera- 
tion no  plea  for  the  continuance  of  bad  habits,  but 
simply  a  question  as  to  the  means  by  which  they  can 
be  abated  without  inviting  greater  evils. 

"  It  is  a  curious  fact,"  says  Professor  Patrick,  in 
his  Psychology  of  Relaxations^  "  that  in  the  thou- 
sands and  hundreds  of  thousands  of  books,  articles, 
and  writings  of  every  description  relating  to  the 
many  phases  of  the  alcohol  problem,  this  simple  and 
fundamental  question — Why  do  men  desire  alcohol.? 
— has  until  recently  never  been  carefully  considered 
at  all,  and  even  now  has  not  been  answered.  The 
belief  that  the  desire  for  alcohol  is  due  to  total  de- 
pravity or  original  sin  seems  to  be  about  as  far  as 
we  have  got  in  answering  this  question.  One  author 
wrote  a  serious  article  not  long  ago  to  show  that  the 
cause  of  drinking  is  to  be  attributed  to  bad  cooking 
in  the  home!  He  evidently  did  not  appreciate  the 
fact  that  the  desire  for  alcohol,  as  well  as  its  use, 
is  at  least  as  old  as  the  Lake-dwellers  of  the  Neo- 
lithic age."  Professor  Patrick  states  the  psycho- 
logical view  of  alcohol  as  follows: 

*  Psychology  of  Relaxation  by  George  Thomas  White  Patrick, 
Ph.D.,  Professor  of  PhUosophy  in  the  State  University  of  Iowa. 


NATIONAL  PROHIBITION  101 

"  We  thus  trace  the  desire  for  alcohol  to  the  in- 
herent need  of  mind  and  body  for  relaxation,  a -need 
normally  supplied  by  all  the  varied  forms  of  play 
and  sport.  Psychologically  it  is  the  expression  of 
the  desire  for  release  from  the  tension  of  the  strenu- 
ous life.  In  a  sense,  therefore,  it  is  the  strenuous 
life  which  is  responsible  for  the  alcohol  impulse,  but 
it  should  be  noted  that  the  word  '  strenuous '  is 
here  used  in  a  broad  sense.  It  does  not  refer  neces- 
sarily to  an  exciting,  active,  high-pressure  life,  but 
refers  rather  to  any  condition  of  unrelieved  tension, 
where  sustained  effort  is  demanded  with  little  oppor- 
tunity for  complete  rest  and  relaxation.  While  these 
conditions  are,  perhaps,  most  often  encountered  in 
the  high-pressure  life  of  our  cities,  they  are  also 
present  in  the  unrelieved  toil  of  the  industrial  worker. 

"  We  are  in  this  way  able  to  understand  some  of 
the  facts  which,  as  we  have  shown,  must  be  consid- 
ered in  any  theory  of  the  alcohol  motive.  We  may 
understand  not  only  the  increased  desire  for  alcohol 
in  modem  life,  but  also  the  lesser  need  for  it  on  the 
part  of  woman.  Woman  is  less  modified  than  man 
and  presents  less  variation.  Her  life  is  calmer  and 
more  even.  She  is  more  conservative,  representing 
the  child  type,  which  is  the  race  type.  Her  life  is 
less  strenuous.  She  is  not  keyed  up  to  so  high  a 
pitch,  and  hence  has  less  need  of  relaxation  and  feels 
less  demand  for  play  and  sport.  Man,  on  the  other 
hand,  represents  variation.  The  mental  powers 
peculiar  to  advancing  civilization  are  more  developed 


102  DRINK  REFORM 

in  him.  He  has  to  be  in  the  vanguard  of  progress. 
With  him,  therefore,  the  stress  of  life,  the  tension, 
the  excitement,  are  greater,  and  he  feels  more  the 
need  of  the  harmonizing  action  of  alcohol. 

"  Again,  we  can  understand  why  even  the  primi- 
tive man  finds  alcohol  a  relief,  for  the  tension  of  his 
life  is  great  as  compared  with  the  lower  animals,  and 
we  can  understand  why  the  desire  increases  with  the 
progress  of  civilization  and  the  corresponding  in- 
crease of  tension.  The  stress  of  life  is  greatest  among 
the  Anglo-Saxon  people  and  greatest  of  all,  per- 
haps, in  American  cities  at  the  present  time.  In  this 
country,  especially,  the  intense  life  of  concentration, 
of  effort,  of  endeavor,  of  struggle,  of  rapid  develop- 
ment, has  for  its  correlate  an  intense  longing,  not 
for  stimulants, — for  our  life,  our  climate,  our  envi- 
ronment are  surely  stimulating  enough, — but  for 
rest,  for  relaxation,  for  harmony,  for  something  to 
still,  temporarily,  the  eternal  turmoil. 

"  Does  the  fact  that  the  desire  for  alcohol  is  in- 
creased by  the  indulgence  in  it  and  the  apparent  fact 
that  those  who  fall  victims  to  its  excessive  use  are 
not  always  those  most  in  need  of  its  harmonizing 
action  present  any  difficulty  in  this  theory?  Prob- 
ably not.  The  desire  for  relaxation  is  not  necessarily 
increased  by  the  use  of  alcohol,  but  only  the  ever- 
renewed  demand  for  that  which  produces  the  longed- 
for  effect,  and,  again,  it  is  not  certain  that  those  who 
fall  victims  to  its  excessive  use  are  those  most  in 
need  of  its  harmonizing  action.    Here  the  element  of 


NATIONAL  PROHIBITION  108 

prudence  and  self-control  must  be  taken  into  account. 
Excessive  users  may  be  those  having  lesser  control 
or  greater  opportunity,  not  those  experiencing 
stronger  desire.  While  the  desire  for  alcohol  is  in- 
creasing with  the  complexity  of  society,  it  is  actually 
true  that  drunkenness  is  decreasing,  and  it  is  possi- 
bly true  that  the  number  of  total  abstainers  is  in- 
creasing. These  things  are  determined  by  custom, 
by  individual  environment  and  education,  and  by  the 
power  of  self-control.  But  the  steady  increase  in 
the  desire  for  alcohol  is  shown  not  merely  in  the 
steady  increase  in  its  consumption,  but  still  more  in 
the  fact  that  it  increases  in  the  face  of  public  and 
private  sentiment,  legal  statute,   and   social   effort. 

"  We  see,  also,  why  the  use  of  alcohol  has  com- 
monly followed  the  law  of  rhythm.  Among  primi- 
tive tribes  drinking  was  periodic,  wild  orgies  of  in- 
toxication following  considerable  periods  of  the  plod- 
ding life.  This  periodicity  is  seen  in  convivial  drink- 
ing of  all  times  and  is  a  familiar  fact  in  every 
community  at  present.  The  power  of  self-restraint, 
strengthened  by  public  sentiment  and  private  pru- 
dence, deters  from  the  use  of  alcohol  up  to  a  certain 
point,  when  the  cumulative  force  of  the  desire,  which 
is  the  cumulative  need  of  release  from  painful  ten- 
sion, overthrows  all  barriers,  and  excess  and  complete 
relaxation  follow  for  a  season. 

"  So  it  appears  that  the  effect  of  alcohol  is  a  kind 
of  catharsis.  But,  just  as  we  have  seen  in  the  case  of 
play  and  sport  and  laughter  and  profanity,  it  is  a 


104  DRINK  REFORM 

catharsis  only  in  a  very  limited  sense,  not  in  the 
Aristotelian  sense  of  purification  by  purging  some- 
thing away,  but  only  in  the  sense  that  it  affords  rest 
and  relaxation.  Truer,  perhaps,  it  would  be  to  say 
that  alcohol  is  a  kind  of  escape.  It  is  not  in  itself 
desired ;  often  enough  it  is  hated.  But  the  user  finds 
himself  under  the  rule  of  an  imperative,  an  insistent 
idea,  a  tormenting  presence,  and  this  presence  is  his 
whole  deep  human  personality  crying  out  against 
the  eternal  urge  of  the  '  will  to  live.'  The  spirit  of 
the  age  proclaims  that  we  must  be  efficient. 
Efficiency,  and  ever  more  efficiency,  is  demanded,  and 
the  desire  for  alcohol  is  the  desire  for  rest,  for  re- 
lease from  the  tension,  for  freedom  and  abandon- 
ment. .  .  . 

*'  But  now,  if  this  theory  is  correct,  what  is  the 
conclusion?  Is  alcohol  a  means  of  purification 
through  relaxation?  Just  so  far  as  it  affords  rest 
to  the  wearied  brain  and  relief  from  the  tyranny  of 
the  will,  it  is  a  means  of  purification,  but  unfor- 
tunately, it  is  at  the  same  time  a  poison,  bringing  in 
its  train  a  heavy  residuum  of  damage  not  only  to 
society,  but  to  the  individual.  The  imperative  need 
of  relaxation  is  apparent,  but,  while  play  and  sport 
are  relaxing  and  recreative,  alcohol  is  relaxing  and 
destructive.  The  colossal  evil  of  its  excessive  use  is 
evident  to  every  one,  but  there  is  reason  to  believe 
that  even  its  moderate  use  detracts  from  the  sum 
total  of  well-being  of  the  individual  in  exact  propor- 
tion to  the  amount  used.     It  is  possible,  however, 


NATIONAL  PROHIBITION  105 

that  the  case  is  still  worse.  Let  us  suppose  that  al- 
cohol were  not  a  poison,  that  it  had  no  effect  beyond 
a  slight  paralysis  of  the  higher  brain.  What  will  be 
the  cumulative  effects  of  such  action  upon  the  indi- 
vidual and  the  race  ?  This  question  cannot  at  present 
be  answered.  .  .  . 

"  To  the  psychologist  it  would  appear  that  the 
method  of  substitution  will  have  more  satisfactory 
results  in  the  end  than  the  method  of  direct  suppress 
sion.  Merely  to  suppress  the  sale  of  alcohol  is  like 
putting  a  lid  on  the  teakettle  to  prevent  the  steam 
from  escaping.  As  long  as  the  fire  bums  brightly 
beneath  and  there  is  water  in  the  kettle,  something 
will  probably  happen  to  the  lid.  If  the  lid  is  screwed 
on  tightly  enough,  something  will  probably  happen 
to  the  kettle.  We  must  either  provide  some  way  for 
the  steam  to  escape  or  else  remove  the  fire.  So  we 
must  either  provide  some  substitute  for  alcohol,  such 
as  healthful  forms  of  relaxation,  or  else,  by  a  dif- 
ferent kind  of  education  or  a  different  manner  of 
social  life,  bring  about  such  a  harmony  in  the  human 
personality  as  to  make  unnecessary  the  resort  to 
temporary  expedients." 

Still  another  uncontrovertible  item  in  the  cata- 
logue of  "  outs  "  about  national  prohibition  must  be 
mentioned.  The  real  warfare  over  it  would  begin 
with  the  efforts  at  enforcement.  We  should  then 
witness,  on  a  nation-wide  scale,  the  spectacle  that 
we  have  already  observed  in  miniature  locally, — the 
blighting  power  of  avowed  disobedience  to  law  dom- 


106  DRINK  REFORM 

inating  political  battles.  The  paralyzing  influence 
that  overtakes  a  community  when  it  condones  the 
violation  of  fundamental  laws,  the  utter  demoraliza- 
tion of  public  officials,  and  the  corroding  of  the  social 
conscience,  are  inevitable  evils  under  prohibition  not 
enforced ;  and  it  is  for  the  conscientious  voter  to 
weigh  how  far  they  offset  any  measurable  gains  for 
temperance. 

The  contrast  to  be  kept  In  mind  is  not  between 
possible  shortcomings  of  prohibition  and  the  out- 
rages of  the  existing  drink  traffic,  but  between  un- 
checked intemperance  plus  the  evils  of  non-enforce- 
ment and  the  employment  of  new  effective  principles 
of  restriction.  One  can  join  heartily  in  the  anath- 
emas against  the  saloon  and  decry  alcoholism  as  a 
world-disease,  while  conscientiously  rejecting  the 
proposed  cure-all.  For  this  reasonable  state  of 
mind  the  extremists  show  pitying  contempt  or  even 
suspicion.  And  now  that  the  question  has  become  a 
firebrand  in  national  politics,  its  consideration  upon 
its  actual  merits  grows  increasingly  difficult.  Daily 
we  observe  political  fortune-hunters,  whose  belated 
conversion  to  temperance  advocacy  is  not  altogether 
convincing  and  who  befog  the  real  issues  at  stake. 
They  trade  upon  the  pleasing  fiction  that  the  de- 
mand for  national  prohibition  springs  from  the  peo- 
ple as  a  whole  because  it  no  longer  thirsts ;  they  mis- 
construe the  very  real  outburst  of  indignation  against 
the  saloon,  as  if  that  alone  provided  a  suitable  foun- 
dation for  absolutism. 


NATIONAL  PROHIBITION  107 

It  is  not  easy,  of  course,  to  differentiate  the  genu- 
ine from  the  spurious  or  manufactured  sentiment 
underlying  the  agitation,  since  not  all  its  motive 
power  is  clean  from  self-seeking  and  since  its  methods 
in  large  part  have  become  coercive. 

This  much  is  certain:  any  sudden  enthusiasm  for 
reform  is  apt  to  lack  depth.  The  alleged  ripeness  of 
the  country  for  national  prohibition  is  not  the  frui- 
tion of  physiological-statistical  teachings  about  the 
effects  of  alcohol.  The  masses  are  not  moved  by  sci- 
entific conceptions.  Happily,  sound  instruction  in 
principles  of  hygiene  has  become  a  powerful  weapon 
in  fighting  intemperance;  but  this  fact  does  not  re- 
duce the  drink  problem  to  a  physiological  basis, 
much  less  excuse  the  palpable  exaggerations  and  the 
confusion  of  values  put  out  in  the  name  of  science. 
It  is  a  social,  not  a  physiological,  question,  and  to  be 
solved  not  by  sifting  the  conflicting  dicta  of  scien- 
tists, not  as  a  matter  of  abstract  morals,  but  by  a 
gradual  progress  backed  at  each  forward  step  by 
an  enlightened  public  sentiment.  To  insist  that 
in  a  space  of  years  a  hostile  attitude  will  become 
reconciled  to  national  prohibition  is  to  beg  the 
question,  for  then  the  mischief  to  be  averted  will 
already  have  been  done — a  too  frequent  expe- 
rience when  legislation  outstrips  public  convic- 
tion. 

These  elementary  observations  are  naturally  re- 
pudiated by  the  type  of  reformer  who  regards  the 
mere  act  of  supplying  intoxicants  as  immoral,  and 


108  DRINK  REFORM 

therefore  refuses  it  legal  sanction  under  any  condi- 
tion. And  yet  he  would  permit  others  to  drink ;  for 
one  sees  that  the  proposed  constitutional  amendment 
aims  to  preserve  this  "  personal  liberty,"  as  well  as 
the  manufacture  and  importing  for  private  use  of 
the  most  noxious  beverages.  Or  is  this  merely  a 
"  joker "  intended  to  make  the  amendment  more 
palatable,  and  to  be  got  rid  of  by  subsequent  per- 
fecting amendments?  The  distinctions  made  in  the 
case  are  curious.  Since  at  bottom  the  question  is  of 
stopping  the  sources  of  intemperance,  how  can  those 
who  brand  as  immoral  the  manufacture  for  sale  of 
all  alcoholic  drinks  consent  to  their  uncontrolled  and 
unlimited  production  for  home  use.''  The  profes- 
sional temperance  agitator  must  perforce  take  an 
extreme  stand.  Fulminations  against  the  inherent 
sinfulness  of  making  and  selling  drink  are  part  of  his 
stock  in  trade,  and  for  him  to  admit  the  possible 
morality  of  supplying  liquor  of  any  kind, under  any 
legal  auspices  would  for  self-evident  reasons  be  a 
disastrous  face-about. 

What  a  strange  perversion  it  is  of  temperance  re- 
form to  subordinate  the  fundamental  question  of 
weaning  the  nation  from  excessive  drink  habits  to 
the  mere  legal  prohibition  of  the  manufacture  and 
sale  of  intoxicants,  since  under  the  liberty  of  import- 
ing and  of  making  it  for  home  use  there  can  be  no 
reasonable  guarantee  that  access  to  alcohol  will  ap- 
preciably be  diminished.  How  absolutely  simple  the 
problem  would  become  if  the  desire  for  drink  were 


NATIONAL  PROHIBITION  109 

conditioned  solely  by  the  legal  production  of  the 
means  for  its  gratification. 

Some  other  significant  aspects  of  national  prohi- 
bition, although  not  essentially  basic,  such  as  its  eco- 
nomic bearings,  the  eventual  compensation  to  a  dis- 
possessed trade,  which  in  some  lands  is  accepted  as 
an  obligation,  and  its  relation  to  government,  will  be 
discussed  in  another  chapter. 

It  has  been  necessary  to  dwell  thus  at  length  upon 
the  prohibition  issue  because  it  is  the  present  storm- 
center  of  temperance  reform  and  held  by  many  to 
be  its  beginning  as  well  as  its  consummation.  Per- 
haps, in  a  far-away  future,  society  will  outgrow  the 
menace  of  alcoholism.  Practically  universal  prohi- 
bition may  be  in  store  for  the  world.  Meanwhile  it 
behooves  us  to  inquire  for  a  safer,  shorter  road  to 
the  hoped-for  millennium  than  that  which  crosses  the 
pitfalls  of  national  prohibition,  and  along  which  men 
are  to  be  driven  when  they  refuse  to  go  willingly. 

It  is  not  true  that  we  have  exhausted  the  means 
for  an  effective  control  of  drink-selling  and  the  sup- 
pression of  alcoholism,  and  that,  therefore,  national 
prohibition  is  the  only  alternative.  We  have  merely 
woven  into  our  statutes  a  fabric  after  the  crazy-quilt 
pattern  which  does  not  hold  together  because  it  lacks 
a  body  of  sound  principles.  The  need  is  not  for 
more  law,  but  for  a  radically  different  law,  the  con- 
trolling motive  of  which  must  not  be  solely  to  end 
the  present  unholy  alliances  of  the  drink  traffic  and 
sweep  away   all  the  rottenness   of  the  saloon,  but 


110  DRINK  REFORM 

gradually  to  dry  up  the  real  sources  of  intemper- 
ance— a  law  that  recognizes  an  inexorable  demand 
and  meets  it  under  conditions  leading  away  from, 
not  to,  excesses.  We  need  not  become  pathfinders  in 
the  wilderness  of  temperance  reform  in  order  to 
establish  this;  but  it  is  necessary  that  we  should  see 
things  as  they  are,  divested  of  prejudice,  and  clearly, 
as  in  r,  glass  without  a  wrinkle. 


CHAPTER  III 
GOVERNMENT  AND  PROHIBITION 

I 

INTRODUCTOEY 

So  much  prejudice  and  finality  of  opinion  surround 
the  question  of  drink  reform  that  he  who  approaches 
it  judicially  risks  being  misunderstood  both  as  to  the 
purpose  and  the  bearing  of  the  argument.  It  is  not 
a  welcome  task  to  paint  the  shadow  sides  of  a  move- 
ment absorbing  so  many  men  and  women  whose  purity 
of  intention  is  beyond  cavil.  But  where  is  the  au- 
thenticated story  of  "  human  wreckage  saved  by  pro- 
hibition "  ? 

The  writer  is  conscious  that  truth-telling  has 
earned  him  the  lasting  enmity  of  prohibition  leaders 
and  a  place  on  the  blacklist  of  thousands  who  follow 
them  blindly.  For  the  sincerity  of  their  convictions 
he  has  but  respect,  believing  that  in  all  things  they 
intend  well.  He  wills  the  same  great  end  as  they — 
temperance — but  would  strive  for  it  through  other 
means.  He  also  ventures  to  hope  that  in  criticism  as 
well  as  in  suggestion  he  has,  however  imperfectly,  re- 
flected the  sense  of  many  people  who  see,  perhaps, 
more  clearly  than  he  that  a  social  millennium  will 

111 


112      GOVERNMENT  AND  PROHIBITION 

not  dawn  until  we  have  been  made  ready  for  it,  not 
by  force  but  by  persuasion. 

Lest  new  misconception  arise,  it  must  be  said  that 
criticism  of  the  extreme  prohibition  wing  is  not  di- 
rected against  all  who  hold  by  sumptuary  law  as  a 
cure  for  intemperance.  If  there  be  general  assent 
among  them  to  the  ultimate  object,  there  is  pro- 
nounced dissent  about  ways  and  means  of  achieving 
it.  Therefore,  it  were  unjust  to  hold  the  mass  of 
prohibitionists  accountable  for  all  the  activities  and 
vagaries  of  more  or  less  self-constituted  leaders. 
This  avowal  is  perhaps  especially  needful  when  the 
relation  of  the  prohibition  movement  to  government 
is  under  discussion.  Personal  motives  and  intentions 
are  not  to  be  scrutinized,  but  merely  the  inexorable 
consequences  of  a  misguided  propagandism.  If  now 
and  then  extreme  instances  are  cited  to  illustrate  very 
present  perils,  they  must  stand  to  the  credit  of  those 
who  provide  them  or  who  undertake  their  defense. 

The  prohibition  method  of  drink  reform  in  its 
radical  manifestations,  is  indictable  because  it  tends 
to  pervert  both  the  theory  and  the  practice  of  gov- 
ernment. This  assertion  doubtless  will  seem  singu- 
larly harsh  and  unjust  to  the  men  and  women  who 
devoutly  believe  that  the  overshadowing  tyranny  of 
the  liquor  traffic  is  the  real  bane  of  our  body  politic. 
They  have  graven  on  their  minds  the  image  of  an 
alcohol  octopus  whose  paralyzing  tentacles  draw 
legislators  and  civic  authorities  of  whatever  name 
into  a  deadly  embrace  and  which  rules  to  ruin.    The 


INTRODUCTORY  113 

picture,  however  magnified  and  distorted,  is  not  one 
of  pure  fancy;  the  liquor  interests  at  times  and  in 
places  have  imposed  a  deadening  weight  upon  gov- 
ernment and  corrupted  where  they  should  have 
obeyed.  Domination,  real  or  attempted,  in  political 
affairs,  interference  in  elections,  tampering  with  the 
police  and  other  public  officials,  and  general  disregard 
of  law  have  justly  been  charged  against  the  liquor 
traffic.  Such  evils  have  been  largely  of  a  local  na- 
ture, quite  amenable  to  correction  through  an  en- 
lightened community  sentiment,  but  have  helped  won- 
derfully to  point  the  argument  for  prohibition. 

The  opposition  to  prohibition  is  invariably  as- 
cribed by  its  promoters  to  the  machinations  of  the 
trade.  Naturally,  the  powerful  liquor  organizations, 
like  any  other  concern,  resent  interference  with  their 
business,  especially  when  they  are  faced  with  the 
possibility  of  its  utter  destruction  without  com- 
pensation. But  the  suggestion  is  that  "  by  some 
obscure  influence  they  induce  others  who  have  not 
the  same  interest  to  join  in  fighting  their  battles." 
The  belief  of  temperance  reformers  that  they  need 
only  reckon  upon  the  opposition  emanating  from  the 
trade  simply  reveals  their  ignorance  of  the  forces 
with  which  they  have  to  deal.  They  would  dam  the 
stream  without  studying  its  origin  and  source.  First- 
hand knowledge  of  the  saloon  and  the  social  want  it 
meets,  they  scorn.  That  actualities  show  alcoholic 
indulgence  to  be  far  too  deep-rooted  in  humanity  to 
be  dug  out  by  any  summary  process,  they   deny. 


114      GOVERNMENT  AND  PROHIBITION 

Particularly  in  this  land  of  compulsory  virtue,  re- 
formers have  come  to  live  in  an  atmosphere  of 
phrases  untempered  by  facts.  The  "  solution  of  the 
liquor  problem  "  is  one  of  them.  By  this,  of  course, 
is  meant  general  prohibition,  that  short-cut  to  virtue, 
which  shall  accomplish  by  a  wave  of  the  legislative 
wand  that  which  all  the  efforts  of  the  saints  and 
sages  have  failed  to  achieve  in  a  score  of  centuries. 
To  those  who  pay  more  attention  to  words  than  to 
actual  life  the  saloon  incarnates  all  the  evil  powers 
of  the  world,  and  warfare  against  it  becomes  a  holy 
crusade  justifying  any  weapon  or  mode  of  attack, 
since  they  believe  emotionally  that  the  salvation  of 
the  world  hangs  by  the  one  issue. 

But  in  the  comfortable  glow  of  reform  people  are 
apt  to  forget  that  in  combating  the  oppression  of 
an  overreaching  traffic,  it  is  possible  to  invite  an- 
other species  of  tyranny  more  inimical  to  govern- 
ment because  it  is  subtler,  less  tangible,  and  more 
enduring  in  its  effects, — the  tyranny  of  political  and 
social  coercion  exercised  in  the  name  of  public  morals. 
The  use  of  force  to  obtain  a  "  sanctified  "  end  is  as 
ancient  as  history,  soiling  the  pages  of  Christianity 
itself.  The  prohibition  propaganda  merely  illus- 
trates a  peculiar  phase  of  such  coercion,  and  the  ap- 
plication of  methods  that  are  the  more  dangerous 
because  of  their  apparent  innocence.  A  slight  re- 
flection on  our  theory  of  government  should  make 
this  clear. 

It  is  an  accepted  article  of  our  political  faith  that 


INTRODUCTORY  115 

the  success  and  durability  of  a  just  form  of  govern- 
ment require  the  consent  of  the  governed.  To  deny 
this  concept  or  to  circumvent  it  is  to  invade  the  very 
fundamentals  of  liberty.  But  this  sound  underlying 
theory  of  democracy  is  easily  subject  to  perversion. 
As  President  Hadley  of  Yale  University  puts  it  in 
his  Standards  of  Public  Morality^ — "  Not  content 
with  saying  that  all  just  government  is  based  on  the 
consent  of  the  governed,  the  enthusiastic  advocates  of 
democracy  hold  that  if  you  could  only  find  what  a 
majority  of  the  governed  wanted,  you  could  easily 
incorporate  it  into  law.  Never  was  there  a  greater 
practical  error.  Public  law,  to  be  effective,  requires 
much  more  than  the  majority  to  support  it.  It  re- 
quires general  acquiescence.  To  leave  the  minority 
at  the  mercy  of  the  whims  of  the  majority  does  not 
conduce  to  law  or  good  government  or  justice  be- 
tween man  and  man.  Even  Rousseau,  the  leading 
apostle  of  modern  democracy,  saw  this  most  clearly. 
He  said  in  substance:  "  A  majority  of  the  people  is 
not  the  people  and  never  can  be.  We  take  a  major- 
ity vote  simply  as  the  best  available  means  of  ascer- 
taining the  real  wishes  of  the  people  in  cases  when 
it  becomes  necessary  to  do  so." 

These  elementary  political  principles  are  lightly 
brushed  aside  by  those  who  strive  for  sumptuary 
legislation.  Yet  coercion  through  a  crude  illegal 
use  of  the  police  power  is  not  a  whit  more  subversive 
of  ideals  of  government  than  the  enactment  by  fab- 
ricated majorities   of  statutory   and   constitutional 


116      GOVERNMENT  AND  PROHIBITION 

laws  that  violate  what  millions  regard  as  inherent 
personal  rights.  Still  the  pursuit  of  that  will  o'  the 
wisp — public  virtue  to  be  attained  by  compulsion — 
continues.  That  experience  has  showed  it  to  be  a 
costly  phantom  is  forgotten  or  wilfully  denied,  and 
a  vacuous  belief  is  maintained  in  the  usefulness  of 
law  as  such,  provided  it  has  a  seemingly  beneficent 
object. 

It  is  axiomatic  that  when  law  reflects  general  con- 
sent in  regard  to  public  needs,  "  its  enforcement 
takes  care  of  itself."  But  when  law  is  enacted  by 
insincere  majorities,  particularly  a  measure  that 
undertakes  to  regulate  personal  habits  and  modes  of 
life,  its  fate  is  foredoomed.  The  greatest  obstacle  is 
not  the  active  hostility  of  bad  men  to  such  a  law,  but 
the  unreadiness  of  good  men  to  support  it,  for  a 
widespread  passive  opposition  suffices  to  destroy  its 
vitality.  Illustrative  of  this  attitude  toward  prohibi- 
tion is  the  reply  of  a  prominent  physician  to  the  ques- 
tion whether  he  had  read  any  of  these  articles  as  they 
appeared  in  The  Atlantic.  "  No,"  said  he,  "  I  never 
read  anything  about  alcohol;  I  am  afraid  of  being 
deprived  of  it." 

Oftentimes  an  obnoxious  law,  by  common  consent, 
becomes  a  dead  letter,  and  its  enforcement  is  not 
even  publicly  advocated.  But  the  preservation  of 
liberty  by  means  of  a  general  permission  to  ignore 
law  does  not  point  to  a  wholesome  social  condition. 
Prohibitory  laws,  however,  are  not  permitted  to  die 
after  the  manner  of  other  legislation  which  a  com- 


INTRODUCTORY  117 

munity  may  have  outgrown.  Even  the  tolerant  citi- 
zen will  grow  apprehensive  over  the  prospect  of  a 
complete  liberation  of  forces  that  stand  athwart 
order  and  decency.  Outwardly,  at  least,  prohibition 
is  always  upheld;  and  from  time  to  time  occur  sin- 
cerely enthusiastic  and  some  locally  successful  at- 
tempts at  enforcement.  The  proper  redress  when  pro- 
hibition is  shown  to  be  a  failure  is,  of  course,  to  se- 
cure its  repeal  by  existing  legal  expedients.  But  just 
as  many  men  allow  social  and  political  considerations 
to  override  the  conviction  that  prohibition  should  not 
be  attempted,  so,  from  the  same  motives,  they  ac- 
quiesce in  its  habitual  violation  rather  than  advocate 
the  repeal  of  the  law.  Then  there  are  everywhere 
large  minorities  personally  hostile  to  the  policy  of 
prohibition,  whose  existence  alone  can  account  for 
the  huge  scale  upon  which  it  has  been  and  is  being 
violated.  From  circumstances  like  these  arise  condi- 
tions that  are  destructive  of  the  social  order  we  call 
government.  Let  us  see  how  these  generalizations 
fit  the  prohibition  propaganda  as  well  as  the  enforce- 
ment of  prohibition  laws. 

The  adoption  of  prohibition  as  a  state's  policy 
need  not  occur  in  response  to  an  overwhelming  volun- 
tary demand  for  the  extinction  of  drink  selling;  for 
the  present-day  prohibition  cult  is  not  a  spontaneous 
growth  but  a  condition  of  mind  requiring  constant 
and  artificial  nurture.  The  advocacy  of  prohibition 
does  not  even  necessarily  connote  enthusiasm  for  total 
abstinence  as  a  personal  habit.     It  will  be  observed 


118      GOVERNMENT  AND  PROHIBITION 

that  abstinence  or  temperance  societies  of  the  old 
pattern  are  not  the  leaders  of  the  national  move- 
ment, nor  is  its  promotion  the  reason  for  their  being. 
In  the  early  days  of  the  prohibition  agitation 
genuine  fervor  directed  the  majorities  in  several  cam- 
paigns. For  the  most  part  its  fires  burned  out 
quickly,  leaving  scarce  a  trace.  Of  later  years  it  has 
become  increasingly  evident  that  such  embers  as  still 
remain  must  be  fed  with  specially  prepared  fuel  if 
they  are  to  be  fanned  into  flame;  and  the  task  has 
finally  become  the  paid  occupation  of  a  certain  class 
of  reformers.  This  does  not  imply  a  prevailing  luke- 
warmness  toward  temperance.  Only  a  blunted  sense 
of  the  public  feeling  round  about  the  country  could 
lead  one  to  deny  a  very  active,  wholesale  resentment 
against  the  saloon  and  the  methods  of  its  backers; 
but  to  identify  this  feeling  with  an  unconquerable 
desire  for  prohibition  is  to  read  it  sadly  amiss.  For 
instance,  the  recent  return  to  prohibition  by  the 
state  of  Alabama  would  probably  not  have  taken 
place  except  to  avenge  the  high-handed  interference 
by  the  liquor  interests  in  municipal  affairs.  In  gen- 
eral, were  this  not  so,  we  should  not  have  witnessed 
the  remarkable  upward  trend  in  the  consumption  of 
liquor  during  the  past  decade ;  nor  would  it  be  neces- 
sary to  build  up  elaborate  local  state  and  national 
machinery  to  deal  with  every  trick  and  device  of 
coercive  campaigning  in  order  to  foster  the  neces- 
sary sentiment.  The  old-line  prohibition  party  was 
not  adapted  to  the  work,  as  experience  in  the  United 


THE  ANTI-SALOON  LEAGUE  119 

States  has  shown  that  a  political  temperance  party, 
pure  and  simple,  whose  vision  of  public  policies  is 
bounded  by  prohibition  is  not  enduringly  an  efficient 
factor  in  state  or  national  affairs.  Therefore,  in 
order  to  gain  the  momentum  in  the  prohibition  cam- 
paign desired  by  the  extremists,  a  new  agency  became 
necessary,  and  the  Anti-Saloon  League  was  fashioned 
to  supply  it. 


THE    ANTI-SALOON    LEAGUE 

The  recent  manifestations  of  the  prohibition  move- 
ment, particularly  in  its  bearings  upon  government, 
cannot  be  thoroughly  understood  without  knowing 
what  the  Anti-Saloon  League  stands  for,  its  char- 
acter, purposes,  and  methods.  Ostensibly,  it  is  "  a 
federation  of  churches  and  temperance  societies  to 
promote  public  morals,"  and  has  also  been  described 
as  representing  a  "  militant  church  movement."  This 
is  true  in  the  sense  that  it  finds  its  main  support 
within  certain  large  Protestant  denominations — the 
Methodist,  Baptist,  Presbyterian,  and,  to  an  extent, 
the  Lutheran  (chiefly  the  smaller  English-speaking 
portion) — and  naturally  finds  adherents  within  lesser 
church  organizations.  These  great  religious  bodies 
have  their  strength  in  rural  and  semi-rural  districts, 
whence  also  the  prohibition  movement  recruits  its 
force. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  Roman  Catholic  Church, 


120      GOVERNMENT  AND  PROHIBITION 

the  Protestant  Episcopal  Church,  and  the  Jewish 
congregations,  counting  together  about  as  many 
members  as  the  others  just  mentioned,  have  their 
stronghold  in  the  cities;  but  they  are  not  identified 
with  the  prohibition  movement  as  such,  much  less 
affiliated  with  the  Anti-Saloon  League.  Indeed,  their 
most  promiment  spiritual  leaders  have  declared 
against  the  prohibition  agitation  as  a  religious  propa- 
ganda and  stand  aloof  from  it  as  a  political  measure. 
In  all  the  prohibition  states,  except  Arizona,  Colo- 
rado, and  Maine,  the  majority  of  church  communi- 
cants belong  chiefly  to  the  Methodist,  Baptist,  and 
Presbyterian  bodies,  yet  in  more  than  half  of  all  the 
states  the  Roman  Catholic  is  the  religion  of  the 
plurality,  and  in  nearly  one-half  of  all  the  states  it 
has  a  larger  membership  than  the  combined  denomi- 
nations which  are  said  to  support  the  program  of 
the  Anti-Saloon  League,  but  among  whose  members 
there  assuredly  are  many  who  refuse  it  indorsement. 
Moreover,  only  two-fifths  of  our  population  are  reck- 
oned as  communicants  of  any  church,  and  only  fif- 
teen per  cent  of  the  population  belong  to  the  par- 
ticular denominations  which  the  Anti-Saloon  League 
would  claim  for  its  own.  Therefore,  does  it  not  savor 
of  a  recrudescent  Know-Nothing  spirit,  when  this 
organization  presumes  to  call  its  propaganda  an 
American  church  movement,  and  to  speak  in  the  name 
of  the  people  of  the  United  States? 

To  be  sure,  the  Anti-Saloon  League  is  of  ecclesi- 
astical  origin;  it  was   given   life  by    a   wandering 


THE  ANTI-SALOON  LEAGUE  121 

Methodist  preacher  some  twenty  years  ago;  the 
active  workers  are  drawn  from  churches ;  pulpits 
are  its  forum,  and  tribute  is  received  from  Sunday 
collections.  In  many  respects,  however,  it  seems 
to  be  singularly  worldly  and  wholly  undemocratic. 
In  spite  of  its  ramifications  and  ubiquitous  agents, 
it  is  a  markedly  centralized  body.  Supreme  con- 
trol is  vested  in  the  General  Superintendent.  He 
assigns  the  State  Superintendents ;  local  or  state 
groups  have  no  choice  in  the  matter.  In  brief,  head- 
quarters select,  direct,  and  pay  all  of  its  officers, 
including  the  legislative  superintendent  at  Washing- 
ton, who  conducts  the  campaign  on  Congress. 

The  Anti-Saloon  League  is  thus  a  very  compact, 
practically  self-perpetuating,  and,  in  a  public  sense, 
irresponsible  group  which  knows  no  political  fealty 
to  other  principles  than  that  of  prohibition,  but  seeks 
to  bind  all  parties  to  its  chariot.  The  corps  of  pro- 
fessional workers  employed  in  every  state  is  not  amen- 
able to  local  discipline  or  control.  Its  lack  of  public 
responsibility  apparently  covers  the  expenditure  of 
vast  sums  of  money  (one  and  one-quarter  millions  per 
annum  is  admitted),  contributed  by  churches,  indi- 
viduals, and  corporations  for  political  purposes, 
which  are  not  regularly  accounted  for  as  such.  It  is 
this  organization,  backed  by  its  own  professional 
publications  and  dominating  no  small  portion  of  the 
general  press,  that  under  the  emblem  of  religion  has 
obtained  control  of  the  propaganda  for  state  and 
national  prohibition. 


122      GOVERNMENT  AND  PROHIBITION 

The  methods  followed  by  the  new  type  of  work- 
ers in  ordinary  prohibition  campaigns,  the  frequent 
proscription  of  candidates  for  office  who  choose  to 
follow  their  own  convictions,  the  intimidation  of 
voters  through  implied  threats  of  social  and  business 
boycott,  the  frank  appeal  to  the  emotions  of  voters 
instead  of  to  their  understanding  through  the  em- 
ployment of  women  and  children  as  special  pleaders 
for  the  cause, — all  of  which  makes  for  unstable  ma- 
jorities— are  tolerably  well  known.  Let  us  turn  to 
the  national  aspects  of  the  situation. 

The  attitude  of  the  Anti-Saloon  League  toward 
Congress  has  recently  been  stated  by  Mr.  William 
H.  Anderson,  State  Superintendent  for  New  York, 
than  whom  no  one  can  speak  with  greater  authority, 
as  follows :  "  The  Anti-Saloon  League  is  not  asking 
any  member  of  Congress  to  declare  that  he  is  in 
favor  of  National  Prohibition,  but  simply  that  he 
shall  not  become  an  avowed  exponent  and  protector 
of  the  liquor  traffic  by  refusing  to  vote  to  allow  the 
people  of  the  Nation,  by  states,  through  their  repre- 
sentatives, to  determine  this  question  in  the  manner 
provided  therefor  by  the  framers  of  the  Constitu- 
tion." 

Many  very  specific  instances  have  been  published, 
with  names  and  dates,  which  seem  to  disprove  this 
assertion,  not  to  mention  the  openly  avowed  inten- 
tion of  seeking  the  defeat  of  candidates  in  the  next 
elections  to  Congress  who  refuse  "  to  permit  this 
question  to  be  settled  by  reference  to  the  states,  so 


THE  ANTI-SALOON  LEAGUE  123 

that  the  people  may  elect  legislatures  pledged  for  or 
against  ratification."  ^ 

Note,  also,  the  assumption  that  he  who  refuses 
assent  to  the  proposed  constitutional  amendment 
thereby  becomes  "  an  avowed  exponent  and  protec- 
tor of  the  liquor  traffic."  Yet  for  the  most  part  it 
is  accepted  in  silence.  Is  this  simply  through  indif- 
ference, the  traditional  American  willingness  to  sub- 
mit to  political  manipulation  rather  than  to  oppose 
it,  or  does  courage  really  fail?  So  long  as  the  Anti- 
Saloon  League  successfully  dangles  the  bugbear  of  a 
moral  issue  before  the  public  conscience,  eternally 
but  wrongfully  declaring  the  prohibition  issue  to  be 
one  between  right  and  wrong  and  not  one  of  social 
expediency,  it  is  perhaps  natural  that  many  should 
become  frightened.  Politicians,  both  large  and  small, 
are  thus  made  to  seek  cover,  or,  when  in  extremity, 
to  enter  into  prohibition  servitude  as  a  means  of 
safety  and  preferment.  Then,  too,  it  is  so  easy  to 
represent  that  the  question  lies  solely  between  tem- 
perance workers  and  the  liquor  interests,  for  only 
those  directly  connected  with  it  would  humanly  show 
the  same  intense  zeal  as  the  temperance  agitators 
themselves.  As  Mr.  Fabian  Franklin  says,  "  the 
opinion  that  nobody  is  concerned  in  the  matter  except 
the  prohibitionists  on  the  one  hand,  and  those  who 
make  money  out  of  liquor  on  the  other,  is  not  only 
false  but  so  monstrously  false  that  its  almost  un- 
challenged currency  must  be  set  down  as  one  of  the 
»  The  Portland  (Oregon)  Journal,  Dec.  18,  1915. 


124      GOVERNMENT  AND  PROHIBITION 

most  interesting  and  instructive  of  psychological 
curiosities."  ^ 

But  the  pronouncement  cited  of  the  attitude  of 
the  Anti-Saloon  League  toward  Congress  is  of  far 
greater  import  than  in  the  respects  just  discussed. 
To  quote  Mr.  Franklin  again, — "  A  doctrine  more 
dangerous,  more  subversive  of  the  spirit  of  represent- 
ative government  than  that  here  laid  down  concern- 
ing the  duties  of  members  of  Congress  in  relation  to 
the  most  solemn  responsibility  they  are  ever  called 
upon  to  discharge,  it  would  be  difficult  to  imagine." 

Nothing  less  is  contemplated  than  a  de  facto 
reversal  of  the  process  by  which  amendments  to  the 
Federal  Constitution  are  intended  to  be  made.  The 
provision  of  the  Constitution  that  the  Congress, 
by  a  two-thirds  vote  in  both  houses,  has  power  to 
propose  amendments  to  the  Constitution,  which  be- 
come effective  when  ratified  by  the  legislatures  of 
three-fourths  of  the  states,  necessarily  implies  a  de- 
liberative act  on  the  part  of  the  Congress  and  imposes 
a  solemn  obligation  for  the  nature  of  the  amend- 
ment proposed.  The  requirement  that  an  amendment 
must  be  submitted  to  the  several  states  for  ratifica- 
tion, is  merely  in  order  that  there  may  be  a  suffi- 
cient check  upon  any  action  of  the  Congress.  But 
the  Anti-Saloon  League  would  have  the  chosen  repre- 
sentatives of  the  nation  abdicate  as  a  deliberative 
body,  efface  personal  conviction,  and  forego  their 
greatest  responsibility  so  that  "  the  people  of  the 
*  The  Unpopular  Review,  Oct.-Dec,  1915,  p.  296. 


THE  ANTI-SALOON  LEAGUE  125 

nation  "  may  determine  the  question  of  national  pro- 
hibition, under  threat  that  he  who  refused  to  do  so 
becomes  an  "  avowed  exponent  and  protector  of  the 
liquor  traffic." 

The  transparent  plea  is  made  that  "  the  people  of 
the  nation  "  through  its  legislatures  should  be  al- 
lowed to  decide.  In  reality  this  is  an  appeal  for 
coercion  through  a  minority  of  the  population.  For 
in  ratifying  a  proposed  amendment  to  the  Constitu- 
tion the  votes  of  the  different  state  legislatures  are 
equal  units,  no  matter  how  great  the  disparity  of 
the  populations  they  represent.  Thus  the  four  least 
populous  states  in  the  Union  would  have  just  as 
much  weight  as  the  four  most  populous  containing 
thirty  times  as  many  inhabitants.  As  stated  in  the 
second  chapter,  a  situation  might  arise  in  which 
thirty-six  legislatures  representing  less  than  one-half 
of  the  population  imposed  their  will  on  twelve  states 
representing  the  majority.  Yet  we  are  adjured  to 
"  let  the  people  decide."  The  true  implication  is, 
let  the  rural  minorities  say  how  the  urban  majorities 
shall  live.  The  expedient  lies  in  passing  up  the  de- 
cision to  the  legislatures,  in  many  of  which,  how- 
ever, the  large  city  populations  proportionally  to 
their  members  have  a  smaller  representation  than 
the  rural.  Logically,  if  "  the  people  "  are  to  decide 
in  the  sense  the  Anti-Saloon  League  would  have 
us  interpret  its  plea,  a  referendum  should  be  had 
to  the  whole  country  for  the  guidance  of  the  Congress 
as  well  as  of  the  state  legislatures. 


126      GOVERNMENT  AND  PROHIBITION 

The  prophecy  is  frequently  made  that  national 
prohibition  will  become  law  within  ten  years.  The 
reasoning  behind  it  is  plain:  Should  Congress  sub- 
mit the  national  prohibition  amendment,  a  state  legis- 
lature may  act  on  the  question  of  ratification  when- 
ever it  sees  fit,  without  any  time  limit;  and  naturally 
every  effort  would  be  made  to  seize  upon  the  right 
moment  for  securing  a  favorable  majority.  If  ratifi- 
cation should  fail  at  the  first  attempt,  a  legis- 
lature may  presumably  reverse  its  action  at  a 
subsequent  session ;  but  whether  a  legislature  can 
reverse  its  act  of  ratification  is  dubious  and  can- 
not be  definitely  known  until  the  Supreme  Court 
has  passed  on  the  question.  Many  hold  that  it 
cannot. 

Thus  it  may  be  needful  only  to  accumulate  during 
an  indefinite  period  the  ratification  votes  of  thirty- 
six  state  legislatures,  the  requisite  majority  for  an 
acceptance  of  the  amendment ;  and  if  ratification  once 
made  is  irrevocable,  any  subsequent  revulsion  of  pub- 
lic sentiment — and  how  rapidly  it  shifts  the  history 
of  the  prohibition  movement  teaches  us — would  be 
of  no  avail.  The  reason  for  urging  the  Congress  to 
stand  aside  and  delegate  its  responsibility  to  the 
state  is  therefore  evident,  since  it  foreshadows  "  the 
clear  possibility  of  the  adoption  of  the  most  momen- 
tous or  radical  of  changes  in  the  organic  law  being 
brought  about  by  the  vote  of  the  legislatures  of  a 
handful  of  states  previously  disinclined  to  it,  at  a 
time  when  an  indefinite  number  of  the  states  previ- 


THE  ANTI-SALOON  LEAGUE  127 

ously  favorable  to  it  had  experienced  a  reversal  of 
sentiment  on  the  subject." 

If  the  country  should  wish  to  repeal  the  proposed 
amendment,  it  would  be  necessary  to  secure  a  two- 
thirds  majority  for  repeal  in  both  houses  as  well  as 
the  consent  of  three-fourths  of  the  state  legislatures. 
But  any  thirteen  states — and  there  are  more  than 
that  number  within  the  prohibition  party  to-day — 
would  have  the  power,  by  refusing  their  assent,  to 
make  repeal  impossible,  no  matter  how  insistent  and 
sincere  might  be  the  demand  for  it  throughout  the 
other  thirty-five  states.  And  a  governmental  policy 
fraught  with  such  incalculable  consequences,  reach- 
ing into  the  very  depths  of  our  political  and  social 
life,  the  well-spring  of  ceaseless  strife  and  of  corrup- 
tion, should  be  left  to  chance  legislatures  in  the  name 
of  a  public  opinion  they  cannot  truly  voice ! 

What  hypocrisy  may  lurk  behind  the  phrase  "  let 
the  people  decide !  "  Is,  then,  representative  govern- 
ment as  exemplified  by  the  Congress  opposed  to  the 
interests  of  the  people  because  it  is  a  deliberative 
body,  bound  by  certain  rules,  forms,  and  account- 
ability for  its  actions?  There  is  something  humor- 
ous in  the  suggestion  that  a  state  legislator  drawn 
from  goodness  knows  what  patch  in  the  hinterland 
must  possess  a  better  sense  of  a  national  policy  than 
he  who  is  charged  with  specific  responsibility  for  it, 
and  who  now  is  virtually  being  asked  to  delegate  his 
authority. 


128      GOVERNMENT  AND  PROHIBITION, 

in 

FEOHIBITION   ATTITUDE   TOWARD   ADMINISTEATION 

The  attitude  of  the  Anti-Saloon  League  toward 
government  is  more  clearly  revealed  through  its  prac- 
tices under  prohibiten.  Of  later  years,  perhaps 
emboldened  by  many  successes,  this  body  under- 
takes not  only  to  secure  sumptuary  legislation  but 
to  dictate  how  it  shall  be  enforced.  Under  local  self- 
government,  the  function  of  making  penal  acts  ef- 
fective belongs  to  the  established  police  authorities, 
co-operating  with  the  proper  judicial  tribunals. 
Somehow  these  usual  custodians  of  order  do  not 
seem  to  meet  the  exigencies  of  prohibition  since  it 
is  held  necessary  to  create  extraordinary  police 
agencies  charged  with  the  single  duty  of  enforcing 
the  edict  against  drink.  In  Maine,  a  few  years  ago, 
the  scandalous  inactivity  of  the  sheriffs  and  the  po- 
lice became  too  notorious  even  for  that  state  to 
endure,  and  a  commission  was  established  with  rov- 
ing powers  to  visit  every  part  of  the  Commonwealth 
and  supplement  or  rather  supplant  the  work  of  the 
local  police  forces.  Bitter  resentment  against  this 
interference  with  local  self-government,  admixed  of 
course  with  political  considerations,  before  long  put 
an  end  to  the  experiment.  Recent  prohibition  legis- 
lation would  anticipate  all  these  difficulties. 

The  state  of  West  Virginia  wrote  into  her  pro- 
hibition law  open  distrust  of  existing  police  powers 


PROHIBITION  ATTITUDE  129 

when  she  established  a  prohibition  commissioner  en- 
dowed with  authority  on  a  par  with  that  of  the 
State's  Attorney-General  and  the  right  to  appoint  a 
practically  unlimited  number  of  deputies  to  assist 
him  in  upholding  the  new  law.  This  innovation  in 
government  has  at  least  been  welcomed  by  place- 
seekers;  West  Virginia  is  overrun  by  deputies  armed 
with  extraordinary  power  to  interfere  with  personal 
liberty,  as  illustrated  by  their  searching  the  baggage 
of  inoffensive  travelers,  perhaps  through-passengers, 
and  haling  them  before  some  magistrate  upon  the 
discovery  of  a  small  quantity  of  contraband  goods, 
or  on  pure  suspicion.  Merely  to  provide  the  pay  of 
these  deputies  has  become  a  notable  drain  upon  the 
already  meager  state  treasury;  but  that  is  a  detail. 
The  core  of  the  situation  is  what  the  effect  must  be 
upon  government  when  in  order  to  vindicate  a  single 
piece  of  legislation  it  is  thought  necessary  to  brand 
the  usual  police  authorities,  chosen  by  the  people  or 
locally  appointed,  and  who  are  sworn  to  execute  all 
laws  for  public  safety  and  welfare,  as  incapable  of 
trust  in  the  one  respect  of  enforcing  prohibition. 
What  a  singular  travesty  on  methods  of  securing 
community  order  and  decency !  Incidentally,  what 
a  commentary  on  the  assumption  that  in  West  Vir- 
ginia, for  instance,  prohibition  is  backed  by  an  all- 
pervasive  and  sound  public  sentiment ! 

This  resort  to  specially  devised  agencies  for  the 
purpose  of  compelling  obedience  to  a  single  law  is 
illustrated  in  other  prohibition  states  by  the  appoint- 


130      GOVERNMENT  AND  PROHIBITION 

ment  of  "state  rangers"  (Tennessee),  and  "liquor 
deputies,"  or  whatever  name  they  may  enjoy.  The 
introduction  of  such  elements  into  the  governmental 
machinery  of  the  state  and  their  maintenance  self- 
evidently  denotes  a  control  of  offices  in  the  interest 
of  no  other  public  policy  than  that  of  prohibition; 
for  its  enforcement,  especially  in  some  Southern 
states  where  it  is  attempted,  has  become  the  pivot 
on  which  the  whole  scheme  of  government  revolves. 
In  view  of  the  recent  rampant  criminality  in  some 
of  the  Southern  states,  one  wonders  whether  their 
quest  of  public  order  and  respect  for  law  has  no 
other  meaning  than  the  enforcement  of  legislation 
against  drink. 

Perhaps  the  most  sinister  phase  of  the  enforce- 
ment work  is  the  pressure  brought  upon  the  courts, 
the  undisguised  efforts  to  influence  their  action  in 
trials  for  violations  of  the  liquor  law.  The  practice 
of  intimidation  of  this  sort  may  even  be  threatened 
before  the  prohibition  law  in  a  given  state  goes  into 
effect.  For  example,  in  the  Portland  (Oregon) 
Journal  (December  18,  1915),  we  read,  under  the 
caption  "  Dry  League  Chief  Tours  East-State,"  the 
following  story: 

"  Superintendent  R.  P.  Hutton  of  the  Anti- 
Saloon  League  of  Oregon  is  now  making  a  tour  in 
Eastern  Oregon,  explaining  the  prohibition  law,  tell- 
ing '  what  is  in  it,'  and  *  how  to  get  the  good  of  it.' 
'  The  proposed  law  and  the  proposed  officials  will 
secure  more  results  with  a  bunch  to  back  them,  than 


PROHIBITION  ATTITUDE  131 

the  best  law  and  the  best  officials  can  get  if  only  an 
unorganized  public  sentiment  is  behind  them.' 

"That  is  the  burden  of  Mr.  Button's  message,  and 
he  is  arranging  for  organized  demonstrations  of  pub- 
lic backing  for  enforcement  to  be  made  in  the  court 
room  when  the  first  half  dozen  trials  come  up  in  each 
county  or  in  the  local  community." 

The  violation  of  the  sanctity  of  the  courts  by 
means  of  "  organized  demonstration  "  of  public  back- 
ing for  enforcement  is  an  expedient  borrowed  from 
Southern  prohibition  states  where  it  has  been  exten- 
sively used.  Instances  of  mobs  showing  noisy  hos- 
tility to  prisoners  on  trial  for  ordinary  offenses 
fortunately  are  exceedingly  rare;  and  everywhere 
such  offenders  would  be  summarily  punished.  But  in 
Southern  prohibition  states  it  appears  to  be  allow- 
able not  only  to  exact  public  pledges  from  judges 
and  prosecuting  officials  in  regard  to  the  enforce- 
ment of  prohibition  (as  to  other  laws  they  are  pre- 
sumably to  be  trusted),  but  to  instruct  a  judge  in 
open  court,  ask  him  to  set  aside  any  doubt  that  may 
attach  to  the  possible  guilt  of  the  defendant  and  to 
demand  that  the  full  penalty  of  the  law  shall  be 
imposed. 

To  what  length  such  intimidation  of  the  courts 
may  be  carried  was  shown  in  Chattanooga,  Tennes- 
see, not  many  years  ago.  The  local  superintendent 
of  the  Anti-Saloon  League  served  notice,  through  the 
public  press,  that  at  a  given  time  he  and  others  would 
call  on  the  judge  of  the  criminal  court  and  find  out 


132      GOVERNMENT  AND  PROHIBITION 

why  the  prohibition  law  was  not  enforced.  To  be 
sure,  past  grand  juries  had  returned  several  hundred 
indictments  against  violators,  and  many  fines  and 
workhouse  sentences  had  been  imposed.  Still,  the 
judge  permitted  the  self-constituted  delegation  to 
appear  before  the  bench,  listened  meekly  to  the 
harangue  against  his  administration  of  justice,  and 
acceded  to  the  demand  that  all  holders  of  Federal 
special-tax  certificates  as  liquor  dealers  should  be 
summoned  before  the  open  court.  In  Tennessee,  as 
in  many  other  prohibition  states,  the  possession  of 
such  a  certificate  is  prima  facie  evidence  of  a  viola- 
tion of  the  law.  The  court  surrendered  to  the  mob 
and  issued  an  order  for  the  holders  of  these  certifi- 
cates to  appear  at  a  given  time  "  for  further  instruc- 
tion." In  the  end  the  tax  certificates  were  surren- 
dered not  to  the  court,  which  had  no  legal  right  to 
receive  them,  but — ^to  the  local  superintendent  of  the 
Anti-Saloon  League!  And  the  farce  proceeded 
"  while  a  large  audience  sat  amazed  at  the  outrageous 
spectacle." 

Tennessee,  however,  is  not  the  only  state  that  has 
suffered  frequent  degradation  of  her  criminal  courts  at 
the  hands  of  prohibitionists.  Coercive  tactics  against 
the  courts  have  been  employed  also  in  Georgia, 
Alabama,  and  North  Carolina — "  organized  demon- 
strations "  for  enforcement,  is  the  polite  name  for 
this  species  of  intimidation.  It  is  easy  to  blame  the 
judges  for  cowardice,  but  it  requires  a  stiff  back- 
bone to  stand  up  against  onslaughts  by  those  who 


PROHIBITION  ATTITUDE  183 

have  it  in  their  power  to  end  one's  official  career  and 
scruple  not  at  the  means. 

To  keep  perpetual  watch  on  the  criminal  courts  is, 
however,  an  irksome  occupation  and  cannot  fully 
meet  the  needs  of  enforcement  which  may  be  blocked 
by  negligent  prosecuting  officials,  and,  moreover,  re- 
quires the  co-operation  of  other  officials,  especially 
that  of  the  municipal  authorities  in  large  centers.  So 
the  infamous  "  ouster "  law  was  invented  for  the 
removal  of  officials  whose  activities  or  inactivities 
have  become  obnoxious  to  some  people.  This  instru- 
ment of  prohibition,  manufactured  and  demanded 
solely  in  support  of  sumptuary  law,  is  revolutionary 
since  it  would  substitute  court-made  for  representa- 
tive government. 

Under  the  "  ouster  "  act  of  Tennessee,  which  pro- 
hibitionists elsewhere  seem  eager  to  emulate,  the 
prosecuting  attorney  of  the  state,  or  of  any  city  or 
county,  may  file  a  motion  in  the  circuit  or  criminal 
courts  for  the  removal  of  a  public  official  from  office 
for  cause ;  or  a  suit  to  the  same  effect  may  be  entered 
on  the  petition  of  ten  citizens.  Should  the  courts 
sustain  the  motion,  they  may  remove  officials  elected 
by  the  people  and  substitute  for  them  men  who  would 
be  rejected  at  the  polls.  This  is  not  fiction  but  fact. 
At  this  writing  the  cities  of  Memphis  and  Nashville 
are  ruled  by  court-made  mayors.  The  mayor  of 
Memphis,  for  instance,  was  removed  from  office  by 
ouster  process,  but  in  the  meantime  he  was  re-elected 
to  serve  a  new  term  beginning  with  the  present  year. 


184      GOVERNMENT  AND  PROHIBITION 

The  prohibitionists,  however,  by  the  aid  of  the  courts 
succeeded  in  restraining  him  from  holding  the  office 
to  which  he  had  been  legally  chosen,  and  he  is  at  pres- 
ent replaced,  through  court  order,  by  a  man  who  has 
not  been  elected.  A  more  violent  usurpation  of  the 
powers  and  prerogatives  which  our  Constitution  has 
lodged  in  the  hands  of  the  voters  has  rarely  been 
witnessed.  What  hold  the  courts,  when  thus  array- 
ing themselves  against  the  people,  can  have  upon  pub- 
lic confidence,  it  is  for  the  prohibitionists  to  say,  the 
sponsors  of  the  ouster  theory  which  was  put  into 
practice  at  their  behest,  and  solely  intended  as  an 
adjunct  in  enforcing  prohibition.  Until  its  inven- 
tion, known  processes  of  law  were  thought  sufficient 
to  safeguard  the  public  against  inefficient  or  corrupt 
government. 

It  is  probable  that  the  ouster  law  will  eventually 
prove  its  own  undoing.  When  political  faction  is 
arrayed  against  political  faction  it  proves  an  ex- 
ceedingly convenient  club  wherewith  those  who  are  out 
of  office  may  wreak  vengeance  upon  those  who  are  in. 
In  several  counties  in  Tennessee  ouster  proceedings 
have  been  begun  against  county  officials  by  their 
political  opponents  and  on  the  most  flimsy  pretexts, 
invdlving  such  questions  as  that  of  public  road- 
building.  Meanwhile,  popular  government  becomes 
a  by-word,  and  turbulence,  strife,  and  bitterness  suc- 
ceed peaceful  order.  Over  the  whole  spectacle  is 
written  in  large  letters— PROHIBITION. 

That  persons  whose  ruling  idea  is  to  make  opera- 


PROHIBITION  ATTITUDE  135 

tlve  laws  directed  against  one  evil  may,  in  their  effort, 
become  the  spokesmen  of  essential  lawlessness  is  an 
easily  understandable  mental  phenomenon.  Accus- 
tomed to  interfere  with  the  course  of  justice  and  with 
representative  government,  it  is  natural  that  they 
should  lack  respect  for  property  when  it  belongs  to 
the  liquor  traffic.  Therefore  they  demand  its  confis- 
cation. In  the  absence  of  express  provisions  in  our 
laws  guaranteeing  that  no  man  shall  be  deprived  of 
property  rights  that  have  enjoyed  legal  protection, 
without  compensation,  the  question  of  the  legality  of 
confiscation  may  be  purely  academic.  The  economic 
significance  of  the  interests  involved  is  not  the  real 
issue,  although,  purely  from  a  business  point  of  view, 
reasonable  people  may  regard  apprehensively  their 
prospective  obliteration,  for  the  capital  involved  in 
the  production  of  liquors  consumed  in  this  country 
exceeds  eight  hundred  millions  of  dollars,  and  its 
disbursements  for  materials,  taxes,  transportation, 
wages,  and  other  objects  during  one  year  amount  to 
nearly  the  same  sum.  All  this  is  exclusive  of  the 
retail  trade,  the  sum  of  whose  capital,  outlay  for 
wages,  rent,  and  supplies  other  than  liquors,  exceed 
one  billion  dollars  per  year.  These  figures  far  tran- 
scend ordinary  comprehension,  and  the  sudden  extinc- 
tion of  the  property  and  employment  they  represent 
would  self-evidently  cause  financial  disturbances  on 
a  scale  rarely  witnessed,  affecting  agriculture,  indus- 
try, commerce,  and  banking  throughout  the  land. 
But  even  if  it  could  be  shown  that  this  industry 


186      GOVERNMENT  AND  PROHIBITION 

and  the  trade  under  it  comprehend  the  sum  total  of 
the  social  and  political  ills  from  which  we  suffer,  the 
confiscation  of  its  property  without  compensation 
would  lack  all  justification.  The  expropriation  of  the 
entire  retail  business  could,  of  course,  not  be  contem- 
plated. It  is  a  commonplace  thing  to  state  that  the 
traffic  in  intoxicants  has  not  only  enjoyed  the  same 
legal  sanction  and  protection  as  other  business,  but 
has  been  utilized  liberally  for  purposes  of  taxation 
benefiting  all  citizens  alike.  No  public  murmur  is 
raised  against  participation  in  this  "  blood  money," 
and  an  instance  is  probably  yet  to  be  recorded  of  a 
prohibitionist  who  has  refunded  to  the  local,  state,  or 
national  government  his  pro-rata  share  from  the 
taxes  levied  on  the  trade  in  order  that  he  may  not 
profit  in  any  sense  from  the  iniquitous  traffic.  Not- 
withstanding all  this,  the  ruthless  destruction  of  all 
the  property  involved  is  demanded  as  an  act  of  jus- 
tice, or  is  there  a  motive  of  retribution? 

In  other  countries  ethical  principles  in  similar 
cases  are  followed  when  there  is  no  direct  legal  re- 
quirement of  compensation.  So  far  as  the  liquor 
industries  themselves  are  concerned,  there  seems  to 
be  no  question.  France  even  granted  the  manufac- 
turers of  absinthe  compensation,  and  Switzerland 
reimbursed  the  growers  of  the  plant  from  which  the 
poison  is  distilled ;  Russia  compensated  the  producers 
of  vodka  upon  the  abolition  of  the  state  monopoly; 
England  expropriates  ancient  rights  to  sell  liquor 
for  a  reasonable  consideration ;  and  in  countries  where 


PROHIBITION  ATTITUDE  137 

the  underlying  principle  has  recently  come  up  for 
discussion,  as  in  Norway  and  Sweden,  there  appears 
to  be  no  disagreement  about  the  equity  of  compen- 
sation even  for  old  selling  privileges.  The  United 
States  stands  alone,  and,  may  we  not  say,  in  the  un- 
enviable position  of  being  willing  to  derive  a  large 
part  of  its  revenue  for  state  and  Federal  purposes 
from  the  liquor  traffic,  in  long  years  representing  bil- 
lions of  dollars,  but  ready  to  destroy  by  vote  the  crea- 
ture of  its  own  protection  and  profit  without  a  cent 
in  return.  The  might  is  there,  also  the  "  legal " 
right,  but  where  the  justice.''  If  the  principle  of 
confiscation  without  compensation  be  generally  defen- 
sible, we  might,  as  the  next  step,  at  the  behest  of  Anti- 
Tobacco  leagues  prohibit  the  growing,  manufacture, 
and  sale  of  tobacco,  which  also  form  an  important 
item  of  revenue  to  the  Federal  government,  and  let 
those  made  to  suffer  bear  their  own  losses. 

The  final  element  in  considering  the  relation  of  pro- 
hibition to  government  is  how  its  non-enforcement 
affects  the  public  mind.  The  introduction  to  the  first 
volume  published  by  the  Committee  of  Fifty  sketches 
this  aspect  of  the  situation  as  follows: — 

"  There  have  been  concomitant  evils  of  prohibitory 
legislation.  The  efforts  to  enforce  it  during  forty 
years  past  have  had  some  unlooked-for  effects  on 
public  respect  for  courts,  judicial  procedure,  oaths, 
and  law  in  general,  and  for  officers  of  the  law,  legis- 
lators, and  public  servants.  The  public  have  seen 
law    defied,    a    whole    generation    of    habitual   law- 


138      GOVERNMENT  AND  PROHIBITION 

breakers  schooled  in  evasion  and  shamelessness,  courts 
ineffective  through  fluctuations  of  policy,  delays, 
perjuries,  negligences,  and  other  miscarriages  of  jus- 
tice, officers  of  the  law  double-faced  and  mercenary, 
legislators  timid  and  insincere,  and  candidates  for 
office  hypocritical  and  truckling,  and  office-holders 
unfaithful  to  pledges  and  to  reasonable  public  expec- 
tation. Through  an  agitation  which  has  always  had 
a  moral  end,  these  immoralities  have  been  developed 
and  made  conspicuous." 

The  day  before  Christmas  of  1915,  a  news  dispatch 
was  sent  broadcast  over  the  country  telling  that  the 
saloons  of  Portland,  Maine,  had  been  closed  by  the 
chief  of  police.  No  surprise  was  expressed  that  such 
institutions  should  still  exist  after  sixty  years  of  pro- 
hibition; nor  was  it  intimated  that  they  would  be 
suppressed  for  good  and  all.  Only  two  questions 
were  asked:  First,  When  will  the  dealers  open  again, 
and  second,  the  more  significant  of  the  two,  What  is 
the  political  move  behind  the  order  to  close?  The 
Republican  State  Convention  in  Maine,  held  at  Port- 
land in  March,  1916,  indorsed  national  prohibition 
and  during  its  session  the  saloons  of  Portland  were 
ordered  to  keep  closed.  These  instances  are  com- 
monplace enough,  but  it  illustrates  abundantly  the 
demoralization  that  seizes  upon  society  at  large  when 
it  tolerates  such  conditions. 

A  community  whose  public  policy  centers  about 
the  question  whether  prohibition  shall  be  enforced 
loses  its  political  sanity.    The  sense  of  right  becomes 


PROHIBITION  ATTITUDE  189 

warped  when  habitually  in  elections  the  fitness  of  a 
candidate  is  measured  by  his  stand  in  relation  to  en- 
forcement, and  schooling  in  evasion  and  hypocrisy 
becomes  an  equipment  for  public  affairs.  Disrespect 
for  public  service,  all  too  frequent  in  American  life, 
augments  ten-fold,  and  low  standards  are  taken  for 
granted. 

High-minded  individuals  may  writhe  helplessly 
under  such  a  condition ;  the  political  parties  do  not 
heed  it  as  they  jockey  for  position.  But  a  party 
creed  declaring  absolute  loyalty  to  a  law  while  totally 
indifferent  to  its  violation  in  letter  as  well  as  in  spirit, 
is  no  choicer  than  the  party  creed  definitely  op- 
posed to  the  same  law  or  actively  aiding  its  evasion. 
When  enforcement  is  made  a  constant  issue,  the  in- 
fluence upon  the  public  is  bad  enough,  but  when  com- 
plete apathy  settles  upon  a  community,  or  the  patrol 
wagon  makes  an  occasional  trip  merely  in  search  of 
revenue,  decent  respect  for  the  government  has  ceased. 
A  prominent  publicist  and  investigator  told  the 
writer  that  he  had  remained  a  steadfast  prohibition- 
ist for  many  years  until  he  came  to  live  for  a  while 
in  a  prohibition  state  and  observed  the  corroding 
effect  on  the  public  mind  that  is  dominated  in  all  its 
relations  to  government  by  the  consideration  whether 
fundamental  and  statutory  laws  shall  be  honored. 

Gravely  we  are  told  to  make  light  of  such  disquiet- 
ing symptoms,  to  discount  the  aberrations  of  the 
zealots  who  really  mean  to  vindicate  pure  government 
although  their  actions  may  seem  to  belie  it.     For 


140      GOVERNMENT  AND  PROHIBITION 

when  the  sun  of  national  prohibition  rises  it  will  melt 
away  all  the  impure  ice  that  encrusts  sumptuary  law 
unenforced;  its  rays  will  make  virtue  spring  up  in 
the  habitation  of  vice,  dissolve  all  hostile  opposition, 
and  cause  personal  and  civic  morality  to  flourish  in 
barren  places.  Does  the  picture  allure  by  its  veri- 
similitude, or  shall  we  face  the  pitiless  facts? 

What  the  future  may  hold  in  store  we  can  only 
forecast  from  the  present,  and  so  far,  unfortunately, 
the  promises  of  prohibition  have  far  outstripped  per- 
formance. Some  day  no  doubt  society  will  be  ready 
for  measurement  by  new  standards;  but  until  then 
progress  is  not  made  by  adding  new  evils  to  those  that 
now  burden  us. 


CHAPTER  IV 
DRINK  REFORM  IN  FOREIGN  COUNTRIES 

One  of  the  significant  by-products  of  the  great 
European  war  has  been  the  emotional  outburst 
against  alcohol — le  delirium  anti-alcoolique,  as  the 
eminent  economist,  M.  Yves  Guyot,  calls  it.  The 
appellation  is  not  undeserved.  Several  lands  have 
latterly  exhibited  a  species  of  hysteria  about  drink 
which  augurs  ill  for  the  stability  of  some  of  the  sup- 
pressive steps  taken,  after  the  alarms  of  war  have 
died  out.  Much  has  already  been  written  on  the 
subject,  but  very  little  in  an  informing  vein.  Fertile 
imaginations  have  played  with  it;  publicists  have 
glorified  the  new-found  zeal  for  abstinence  in  co-bel- 
ligerent countries;  and  often  the  writings  reveal  the 
clumsy  hand  of  the  propagandist,  who  does  not  hesi- 
tate to  make  capital  even  out  of  desperate  conditions. 

The  war  measures  against  drink  abuse  are  only  in 
a  limited  sense  outcroppings  of  the  world  temper- 
ance movement.  They  have  sprung  from  extraordi- 
nary circumstances  of  a  more  or  less  temporary  char- 
acter. Instead  of  indicating  the  high-water  mark  of 
advance,  they  tend  to  obscure  the  solid  temperance 
progress  as  well  as  the  means  by  which  it  has  been 
achieved,  and  so  far  as  they  overreach  the  aim,  point 

141 


142      REFORM  IN  FOREIGN  COUNTRIES 

to  an  uncomfortable  reaction.  Since  war  measures 
against  alcohol  have  been  uppermost  in  the  public 
mind,  it  is  reasonable  to  begin  with  an  examination 
of  the  status  of  liquor  legislation  and  reform  in  the 
belligerent  countries,  and  follow  with  a  cursory  view 
of  the  legislation  and  progress  of  reform  in  other 
foreign  countries. 


EUSSIA  AND  FINLAND 

The  abolition  of  the  government  vodka  monopoly 
stands  out  as  the  most  spectacular  event  in  social  legis- 
lation incident  to  the  war.  The  time  was  peculiarly 
adapted  for  it.  Periodic  as  well  as  habitual  intem- 
perance has  long  been  a  sore  trouble  in  Russia,  espe- 
cially in  the  peasant  villages.  Whether  it  had  been 
fostered  by  the  vodka  monopoly,  which  replaced  a 
practically  unrestricted  home  distillation,  may  well 
be  doubted.  We  know  that  production  of  vodka  in- 
creased, thanks  to  the  industry  of  the  landed  gentry 
controlling  the  distilleries,  and  that  the  government 
coffers  swelled  in  proportion.  In  the  years  immedi- 
ately preceding  the  present  war,  the  government  had 
persistently  clung  to  its  drink  monopoly  and  issued 
many  a  publication  purporting  to  show  its  benevolent 
character  as  a  means  of  counteracting  drunkenness, 
both  through  the  control  of  sales  and  by  substituting 
tea-houses,  theaters,  and  other  places  of  recreation 
for  the  vodka  shop.    Why,  then,  this  sudden  reversion 


RUSSIA  AND  FINLAND  143 

of  policy  ?  The  Czar's  ukase  abolishing  the  monopoly 
bears  certain  marks  of  impulsiveness  rather  than  of 
calm  deliberation.  The  underlying  motives  appear  to 
have  been  mixed.  It  was  vitally  important  to  prevent 
a  repetition  of  the  drunken  orgies  which  had  marred 
and  hindered  the  mobilization  of  troops  in  the  Russo- 
Japanese  war.  But  there  was  more  back  of  it  than 
military  caution.  A  great  wave  of  emotion  swept 
over  the  country,  partaking  of  the  nature  of  a  re- 
ligious frenzy.  No  sacrifice  was  too  great  for  the 
cause  of  Holy  Russia.  Psychological  conditions  were 
opportune  for  a  drastic  step,  and  the  thing  was  done. 
The  population  at  large,  including  officials  and  even 
the  formidable  temperance  party,  was  taken  by  sur- 
prise. There  was  no  time  for  discussion,  much  less 
for  a  readjustment  of  affairs;  and  clear  prevision 
of  events  is  not  a  characteristic  of  a  despotic  form 
of  government  which  exacts  blind  obedience  and  dis- 
courages questionings. 

Sufficient  time  has  elapsed  since  the  abolition  of  the 
government  vodka  monopoly  to  form  a  reasonable 
judgment  about  the  effects,  although  it  is  difficult  to 
forecast  accurately  the  future  trend  of  Russian  liquor 
legislation.  The  evidence  relied  upon  by  the  writer 
is  partly  contained  in  personal  communications  from 
Russian  officials,  and  in  reports  from  different  lega- 
tions of  neutral  countries  at  Petrograd,  and  is  largely 
obtained  from  a  systematic  search  of  representative 
Russian  publications,  some  of  them,  like  the  Novoye 
Vremyay  stanch  supporters  of  the  prohibition  policy. 


144      REFORM  IN  FOREIGN  COUNTRIES 

and  none  of  them  daring  probably  to  dish  up  false- 
hoods about  the  situation. 

It  is  the  common  opinion  that  the  government  will 
never  revive  the  vodka  monopoly.  Whether  the  sale 
of  this  article  and  of  spirits  generally  will  remain 
under  absolute  prohibition  after  the  war  is  another 
question.  The  purposes  of  the  imperial  council  are 
not  clearly  defined.  Local  conditions  in  many  in- 
stances are  chaotic.  The  production  and  sale  of 
vodka  are  forbidden  by  an  imperial  ukase,  but  the 
local  communities,  through  town  or  provincial  coun- 
cils (zemstvos)  enjoy  the  privilege  of  local  option  in 
regard  to  other  alcoholic  drinks.  In  the  first  flush 
of  enthusiasm  prohibition  carried  the  larger  part 
of  the  country.  To  be  sure,  in  some  instances,  gov- 
ernors refused  to  give  effect  to  the  will  of  councils. 
Thus,  in  Kaluga,  the  governor  twice  vetoed  the  pro- 
hibition regulations  adopted  by  the  council.  And 
exceptions  were  made  in  favor  of  hotels,  restaurants, 
and  clubs.  But  the  mujik  and  the  laborer,  whose 
sole  indulgence  is  in  vodka,  were  made  to  feel  all 
the  rigors  of  prohibition. 

During  the  first  weeks  there  seems  to  have  been 
some  ardor  for  the  unaccustomed  virtue  of  absti- 
nence. But  the  spacious  claims  spread  throughout 
the  world  about  a  Russia  sober  and  regenerated  have 
not  been  verified.  Amiable  publicists  like  Mr.  Stephen 
Graham  and  others,  out  of  love  for  their  allies,  in- 
cline to  draw  on  imagination  rather  than  on  facts  in 
picturing  the  new  Russia.     In  truth,  no  sooner  had 


RUSSIA  AND  FINLAND  145 

the  country  begun  to  realize  the  wide  bearing  of  the 
drink  rescript  than  all  the  ills  accompanying  unen- 
forced prohibition  sprang  up,  from  the  Baltic  to  the 
remote  Asiatic  east.  Perhaps  the  region  least  af- 
fected was  the  Caucasus,  where  wine  is  the  staple 
drink.  The  story  has  such  a  familiar  ring!  What 
the  government  denied  the  people,  it  soon  began 
to  supply  by  illicit  means.  According  to  the  reports 
of  the  Minister  of  Finance,  during  the  six  months 
following  the  prohibitive  measures  revenue  officers 
discovered  1,825  secret  distilleries  manufacturing  a 
special  brand  of  whiskey  known  as  Jcumusha;  160  dis- 
tilleries fitted  out  with  the  most  modern  machinery 
for  making  vodka;  92  distilleries  especially  designed 
for  filtering  lacquer  and  varnish;  and  60  distilleries 
engaged  in  filtering  denatured  alcohol.^ 

Another  drink  manufactured  on  a  large  scale  is 
known  as  khanza  and  consists  of  wood  alcohol,  pep- 
per, and  other  spices.  Even  more  popular  is  the 
so-called  TcvasoTc,  made  from  cider,  wild  hops,  dry 
yeast,  a  little  alcohol,  and  snuff.  It  is  reported  sold 
in  huge  quantities,  and  its  effect  is  explained  by  cit- 
ing the  peasant  saying:  "Spill  something  on  a  pig's 
tail  and  it  will  get  bold." 

So  widespread  has  illicit  distilling  become,  not 
only  in  the  populous  centers  like  Petrograd  and  Mos- 
cow, but  in  many  distant  provinces,  even  in  Irkutsk, 
that  the  government  has  increased  the  amount  of  the 
fine  from  2,500  to  6,000  rubles  and  the  term  of  im- 
*  Byetch,  Petrograd. 


146      REFORM  IN  FOREIGN  COUNTRIES 

prisonment  from  two  months  to  one  year  and  four 
months.  Still  the  traffic  shows  no  abatement,  and  in 
Russia  immunity  from  arrest  is  a  purchasable  com- 
modity. So  insistent  has  been  the  demand  for  alco- 
hol that  substitutes  in  the  form  of  denatured  alcohol, 
eau  de  cologne,  politura,  and  the  like  have  been  con- 
sumed in  large  quantities  despite  their  dangerous 
effects.  From  Kiev,  Riga,  Tambou,  Penza,  Simbirsk, 
Vilna,  Nijny  Novgorod,  Charkov  Kursk,  Moscow, 
Petrograd,  and  innumerable  other  places  come  reports 
of  deaths  and  poisonings  from  these  liquids.  Medical 
societies  have  found  it  necessary  to  caution  the  public 
against  the  use  of  denatured  alcohol,  and  have  even 
asked  permission  to  post  notices  of  warning  in  the 
streets  and  other  public  places.  A  commission  of  the 
Petrograd  Ophthalmological  Society  reports  that 
there  had  been  treated  at  two  named  hospitals,  up 
to  April  15,  no  less  than  2,882  persons  whose  sight 
had  been  impaired  by  drinking  denatured  and  wood 
alcohol,  varnish,  and  so  forth.  Of  this  number  27 
died.  During  the  same  time,  138  persons  had  been 
brought  to  the  eye  departments  of  two  Petrograd 
hospitals,  who  had  become  blind  or  suffered  a  marked 
loss  of  sight  from  the  same  cause.  Dr.  Novoselski, 
writing  in  the  Ruski  Vratch  (Petrograd),  cites  the 
official  returns  of  deaths  from  delirium  tremens  and 
remarks,  "  Before  prohibition  the  mortality  figures 
varied  and  changed  without  definite  regularity;  after 
prohibition  they  show  a  regular  and  constant  in- 
crease.    As  prohibition  regulations  became  stricter 


RUSSIA  AND  FINLAND  147 

and  at  last  complete,  the  mortality  from  alcoholism 
increased."  He  argues  from  the  mortality  statistics 
that  substitutes  for  vodka  "  are  used  not  only  by 
confirmed  drunkards,  but  generally  by  those  classes 
who  before  prohibition  used  to  drink  moderately." 
The  recent  victims  of  alcoholism  in  Petrograd  were 
"  persons  of  all  ages  and  all  occupations." 

Such  is  the  saddening  answer  to  the  well-intended 
prohibition  of  vodka,  for  which  no  substitute  was 
offered.  It  agrees  ill  with  the  popular  conception  of 
general  sobriety  throughout  the  Russian  dominions 
which  has  universally  been  applauded.  The  story  of 
it  carried  abroad  by  the  press  unhappily  belongs  to 
the  claptrap  of  war  times.  At  first  there  were  some 
superficial  signs  of  general  abstinence.  Our  news- 
papers have  featured  the  intelligence  that  drunken- 
ness had  disappeared  from  the  streets  of  Petrograd. 
And  now?  The  Ryetch  reports  that  during  six 
days  in  April  and  May,  of  1915,  783  persons  were 
sentenced  for  being  drunk  on  the  streets.  The  severe 
penalty — the  fine  of  100  rubles  or  a  month  in  jail, 
or  both — does  not  seem  to  have  a  deterring  influence. 

A  writer  in  the  Ryetch  comments  thus  on  the  gen- 
eral situation :  "  The  sun  of  sobriety  has  set  before 
it  reached  the  zenith.  .  .  .  The  village  folk  had 
hardly  time  to  wear  out  the  boots  in  which  they 
marched  after  the  coffin  of  the  '  monopoly '  before 
tens  of  thousands  of  illicit  distilleries  of  liquors,  fac- 
tories of  all  kinds  of  strong  drink,  came  into  exist- 
ence. ...  It  would  be  naive  and  ruinous  to  regard 


148      REFORM  IN  FOREIGN  COUNTRIES 

the  work  of  reform  as  completed.  On  the  contrary 
the  task  is  all  ahead.  .  .  .  Vodka  played  a  great 
part  in  our  peasant  life,  and  its  disappearance  creates 
a  greater  or  less  vacancy  which  in  some  way  or  other 
must  be  filled.  .  .  .  There  also  come  reports  that  the 
village  folk  are  becoming  addicted  to  gambling  and 
that  a  passion  for  it  is  seizing  the  whole  mass  of 
peasantry.  In  short,  everything  points  to  the  fact 
that  the  sobering  of  the  people  cannot  be  accom- 
plished by  the  simple  discontinuance  of  the  traffic  in 
liquor.  It  is  necessary  to  occupy  their  leisure  in 
some  interesting  and  instructive  manner;  otherwise 
the  reform,  so  grandiose  and  full  of  beautiful  pos- 
sibilities, will  yield  negative  results." 

In  the  same  strain  speaks  the  Novoye  Vremya, 
which  is  a  strong  adherent  of  prohibition :  "  It  must 
be  admitted  that  the  great  historical  act  by  which 
the  traffic  in  liquor  was  forbidden  found  the  country 
far  from  prepared  to  replace  the  drunken  haze  by 
sober  pastime.  .  .  .  But  only  now  [ten  months  later] 
has  the  question  occurred,  how  to  fill  the  spare  time 
thus  gained.  .  .  .  Just  a  bare  prohibition  of  vodka 
after  the  war  would  be  only  an  injunction  which 
could  be  circumvented.  It  is  necessary  to  divert  the 
population  from  vodka,  to  cultivate  a  taste  for  a 
different  employment  of  their  leisure." 

How  the  government  will  cope  with  the  many  un- 
foreseen difficulties  that  have  arisen  remains  to  be 
seen.  Well-informed  opinion  inclines  to  the  belief 
that  while  the  ban  on  vodka  will  remain,  the  sale  of 


RUSSIA  AND  FINLAND  149 

beer  may  be  permitted  and  that  of  wine  be  made 
free;  for  Russia,  it  should  be  remembered,  is  sixth 
among  the  wine-producing  countries  of  the  world. 
A  complication  is  likely  to  occur  through  her  posi- 
tion as  a  large  debtor  nation  to  France.  It  would  be 
a  serious  blow  to  the  powerful  distilling  and  wine- 
growing interests  of  France  to  find  the  Russian  mar- 
ket closed.  On  the  other  hand,  were  France  per- 
imitited  to  flood  Russia  with  cheap  brandies  and 
liquors,  prohibition  would  get  another  setback. 
Meanwhile  local  communities  seem  increasingly  in- 
clined to  exercise  the  option  granted  by  law  and  pro- 
vide for  the  sale  of  fermented  beverages.  This  has 
been  done  in  Minsk,  Bobroysk,  Igumen,  Riga,  and 
many  other  places.  Except  on  the  part  of  the  dis- 
tillers and  similar  interests  there  seems  to  be  no  dis- 
position to  advocate  a  return  to  the  manufacture 
and  sale  of  vodka.  At  a  public  conference  held  in 
Petrograd  during  the  spring  of  this  year,  the  per- 
petual prohibition  of  the  sale  of  whiskey  was  advo- 
cated. Beers  and  wines,  however,  especially  wines, 
were  held  to  have  a  desirable  effect  on  village  life, 
and  the  ministry  was  requested  to  act  accordingly. 
The  Minister  of  Commerce  has  already  recom- 
mended that  the  sale  of  beer  and  wine  containing  not 
more  than  sixteen  per  cent  of  alcohol  be  permitted.^ 
Information  received  from  Russia  since  the  above 
was  written  confirms  the  statements  made  about  the 
difficulties  of  enforcing  prohibition.  The  Ryetch 
*  Birzhevya    Vyedomosty,    Petrograd. 


150      REFORM  IN  FOREIGN  COUNTRIES 

(Petrograd)  of  October  7,  1915,  gives  an  extended 
account  of  a  session  of  the  Petrograd  Municipal 
Commission  to  Combat  Drunkenness.  Among  the 
many  witnesses  a  medical  inspector  of  the  city  testi- 
fied that  in  spite  of  the  prohibition  of  vodka  drunken- 
ness has  continued,  and  that  while  the  administration 
had  made  efforts  to  prevent  it  by  passing  special  laws, 
it  had  not  succeeded.  In  Petrograd  alone,  according 
to  a  statement  of  the  Revenue  Department,  the  drug 
stores  (119  in  number)  and  hospitals  had  purchased 
more  than  154,000  gallons  of  pure  alcohol  between 
January  1  and  September  1,  1915,  while  cologne 
and  cosmetic  establishments  during  the  same  period 
had  bought  more  than  217,000  gallons  of  pure  alco- 
hol. The  activities  of  druggists  dispensing  not  only 
pure  alcohol  but  various  tinctures  containing  it,  ap- 
pear to  continue  in  spite  of  the  legal  restrictions. 
Many  noxious  substitutes  for  vodka  are  used.  Co- 
logne seems  to  be  one  of  the  favorites.  During  the 
month  of  August,  1915,  no  less  than  sixty  new  places 
were  opened  for  the  manufacture  of  cologne.  The 
Ryetch  concludes  that  the  sale  of  alcohol  is  growing 
rapidly  and  that  the  demand  for  it  in  the  prepara- 
tion of  cologne  is  increasing. 

The  Budget  Commission  of  the  Duma  at  its  De- 
cember session  discussed  at  length  "  the  war  on 
drunkenness  and  other  questions  growing  out  of  the 
abolition  of  vodka."  Evidently  none  of  its  members 
was  disposed  to  advocate  the  legalization  under  any 
form  of  the  sale  of  vodka;  but  it  was  equally  ap- 


RUSSIA  AND  FINLAND  151 

parent  that  there  is  among  them  a  profound  dissatis- 
faction with  the  way  in  which  prohibition  has  worked 
out.  One  member  of  the  Budget  Commission  (M.  A. 
Karaulov)  declared  that  "  the  measures  adopted  to 
combat  drunkenness  do  not  accomplish  their  object." 
Another  member  (E.  S.  Kliuzhov),  said,  "  If  the 
Government  really  wants  to  abolish  drunkenness  it  is 
up  to  the  Minister  of  Finance  categorically  to  declare 
that  the  sale  of  vodka  wiU  not  be  renewed  after  the 
termination  of  the  war,"  and  added,  "  Prohibition  is 
not  enough  to  sober  the  Nation."  Some  of  the  criti- 
cisms made  by  other  members  were  stricken  out  of 
the  newspaper  reports  by  the  Censor.  Finally,  the 
Minister  of  Finance  (M.  Bark),  replied,  "  I  find  it 
important  categorically  to  announce  that  all  sus- 
picion that  the  Government  intends  to  renew  the  sale 
of  vodka  is  unfounded.  I  categorically  announce  that 
the  Government  will  support  prohibition,  and  that 
there  is  no  chance  of  a  return  to  the  former  state 
of  affairs.  ,  ,  .  The  question  of  permitting  the  sale 
of  light  drinks  (beer  and  wine)  has  not  received  any 
final  action,  as  this  matter  is  left  in  the  hands  of 
the  city  councils." 

In  his  recommendation  to  the  Duma  of  laws  impos- 
ing penalties  for  violations  of  the  revenue  statutes 
and  for  public  intoxication,  M.  Bark  wrote:  "On 
the  restoration  of  normal  life  after  the  close  of  the 
war,  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  present  extraordinary 
measures  for  preserving  sobriety  will  be  revised.  Up 
to  the  present  time  the  changes  that  will  follow  can- 


152      REFORM  IN  FOREIGN  COUNTRIES 

not  be  determined,  and  their  consideration  is  a  mat- 
ter for  the  future." 

This  somewhat  cr3rptic  utterance  is  hardly  to  be 
considered  as  a  hint  that  the  government  will  re- 
sume the  sale  of  vodka  in  some  form  although  it  has 
been  so  understood.  In  approving  the  estimates 
which  included  a  million  rubles  in  aid  of  societies 
whose  object  is  to  prevent  drunkenness,  the  Budget 
Commission  recommended  the  preparation  of  a  law 
providing  for  permanent  prohibition  in  Russia. 

The  Government  still  manufactures  alcohol  and 
carries  about  8,000  employees  on  the  pay-rolls 
of  the  distilleries,  having  discharged  about  ten 
times  as  many.  There  is  a  goodly  supply  of  vodka  on 
hand  owned  by  the  Government — about  eighty  mil- 
lion vedros  (a  vedro  equals  3  1-4  gallons).  There 
is  considerable  uneasiness  about  this.  One  deputy 
recommended  that  the  vodka  be  destroyed,  "  since 
the  losses  brought  about  by  the  embezzlement  of  the 
vodka  might  be  greater  and  more  important  to  the 
Government  and  the  community  than  the  losses  in- 
curred by  destruction "  (here  the  Censor  deleted 
some  lines).  The  Budget  Commission  recommended 
the  removal  of  the  stored  vodka  from  the  war  zone,  or 
if  that  proved  impracticable  its  destruction,  also 
that  its  exportation  and  use  for  technical  purposes 
be  encouraged.  The  Agricultural  Department  has 
recommended  that  the  Duma  enact  laws  to  prevent 
development  of  opium  smoking  and  suggests  a  pen- 
alty for  it  of  imprisonment  for  one  year  and  four 


RUSSIA  AND  FINLAND  153 

months,  together  with  a  fine  of  500  roubles.  This 
is  regarded  as  "  necessary  in  view  of  the  prohibition 
of  the  opium  traffic  in  China  and  its  development  in 
our  far  Eastern  states  where  peasants  rent  land  to 
the  Chinese  for  the  purpose  of  raising  poppies  from 
which  opium  is  extracted."  The  habit  of  smoking 
the  drug  is  beginning  to  develop  in  Russian  cities,  it 
is  said.  In  certain  quarters  much  has  been  made  of 
statements  from  Russia  concerning  the  increase  in 
savings  bank  deposits  as  evidence  of  economic  im- 
provement since  the  abolition  of  the  vodka  monopoly. 
It  is,  of  course,  impossible  at  this  distance  to  judge 
how  far  sobriety  has  been  the  most  important  factor. 
Statistics  of  wealth  are  notoriously  of  uncertain  value 
in  gauging  the  state  of  sobriety  in  any  community. 
Applied  to  our  own  states,  they  make  it  possible  to 
prove  the  most  absurdly  contradictory  conditions. 
It  seems  probable,  however,  that  in  the  country  dis- 
tricts of  Russia  there  may  have  been  a  greater  sav- 
ing because  less  money  was  being  spent  for  vodka. 

Russia  is  learning  lessons  that  should  have  become 
trite  in  this  country.  Perhaps  the  chief  among  them 
is  this:  if  sumptuary  legislation  creates  voids  in  so- 
cial and  community  life  without  seeking  to  fill  them 
by  acceptable  substitutes,  its  ends  are  sure  to  be  de- 
feated. In  the  space  of  less  than  one  year  Russia  has 
suffered  most  varieties  of  ills  resulting  from  prema- 
ture prohibition.  But  fortunately  they  are  recog- 
nized and  fully  acknowledged  by  temperance  reform- 
ers.    Herein  lies  the  promise  that  the  evils  will  be 


154      REFORM  IN  FOREIGN  COUNTRIES 

overcome  by  limiting  prohibition  to  vodka  and  its 
equivalents.  That  done,  the  abolition  of  the  govern- 
ment monopoly  will  stand  as  a  momentous  achieve- 
ment. But  the  experience  of  Russia  illustrates  that 
even  in  an  autocracy  a  social  reform  cannot  be 
effected  merely  by  ukase  when  public  opinion  refuses 
to  support  it. 

Finland:  In  no  European  country  is  the  per 
capita  consumption  of  alcoholic  drinks  so  low  as  in 
Finland  which,  although  it  is  a  Russian  province,  has 
hitherto  enacted  its  own  legislation  for  the  control 
of  the  drink  traffic.  Given  in  terms  of  pure  alcohol, 
the  per  capita  consumption  amounted  to  1.56  liters 
for  the  years  1906-1910.  After  long  times  of  per- 
sistent temperance  agitation  the  Finnish  One-Cham- 
ber Parliament  in  1909  passed  in  its  final  form  a  law 
prohibiting  the  manufacture,  importation,  transpor- 
tation, and  sale  of  "  alcoholic  fluids "  except  for 
technical,  medicinal,  and  scientific  uses.  The  law  was 
refused  sanction  by  the  Russian  Government  al- 
though the  Russian  military  force  in  Finland  was  dis- 
tinctly exempted  from  its  provision.  It  is  inter- 
esting to  observe  that  even  this  drastic  law  per- 
mitted the  use  of  alcoholic  beverages  containing  less 
than  two  per  cent  (volume)  of  alcohol: 

Under  the  existing  license  law  all  sale  of  spirits  is, 
with  some  minor  exceptions,  confined  to  the  towns. 
The  rural  districts  are  practically  under  prohibi- 
tion so  far  as  the  sale  of  spirits  is  concerned.  In 
the  towns  no  spirits  may  be  served  except  with  hot 


FRANCE  155 

food.  Licenses  are  granted  for  three  years  at  a  time 
by  the  municipal  council  and  may  be  renewed  or  with- 
drawn as  circumstances  demand.  The  licenses  may 
be  turned  over  to  private  disinterested  companies 
which  may  turn  over  some  of  its  privileges  to  hotels 
and  restaurants  but  exclusively  for  the  sale  of  im- 
ported spirits.  The  laws  governing  the  traffic  in 
spirits  apply  generally  to  the  sale  of  wine  and  beer. 
It  is  absolutely  forbidden  to  serve  beer  and  porter 
in  rural  districts  except  at  hotels  which  have  been 
granted  the  privilege  of  selling  to  travelers. 

The  traffic  in  light  malt  drinks  (containing  not 
over  2  1-2  volume  per  cent  of  alcohol)  is  open  to 
any  one  permitted  to  engage  in  trade.  In  practice 
the  exemption  holds  good  in  regard  to  beer  contain- 
ing less  than  four-volume  per  cent  of  alcohol.  While 
the  war  lasts  the  sale  and  serving  of  all  spirits  is 
prohibited  except  at  first-class  restaurants.  The 
same  appears  to  be  true  in  regard  to  wine ;  but  per- 
sons who  can  present  a  satisfactory  certificate  from 
the  police  may  buy  beer,  not  exceeding  a  stipulated 
quantity. 


FRANCE 

In  France,  too,  the  war  has  helped  to  draw  the 
public  mind  to  the  drink  problem.  Economic  inter- 
ests and  military  considerations  have  given  it  promi- 
nence. The  question  of  drink  reform  has  gained 
impetus  also  from  the  favorable  publicity  given  the 


156      REFORM  IN  FOREIGN  COUNTRIES 

Russian  experiment  as  well  as  from  the  characteristic 
British  growl  about  the  effects  of  drink  upon  the 
productiveness  of  the  laboring  classes.  Of  course, 
the  temperance  politician  has  utilized  the  unusual  op- 
portunity for  agitation;  and  the  inevitable  alarmists 
have  preached  abstinence  as  the  price  of  final  victory. 
It  does  not  appear,  however,  that  the  military  con- 
ditions have  been  complicated  by  the  drink  situation. 
Commanders  are  given  ample  authority  to  take  the 
necessary  precautions  without  making  over  the 
habits  of  the  soldiery. 

The  one  great  forward  step  in  France  has  been 
the  abolition  of  absinthe,  but,  contrary  to  popular 
belief,  this  was  not  a  war  measure.  The  country  at 
large  had  become  convinced  of  the  ravages  of  this 
toxic  drink,  and  steps  to  do  away  with  it  antedated 
the  war.  At  the  various  sittings  of  the  French  As- 
sembly since  the  beginning  of  hostilities  the  question 
of  restricting  the  liquor  traffic  has  been  freely  de- 
bated, but  so  far  there  is  no  prospect  that  radically 
constructive  laws  will  be  passed.  The  most  recently 
introduced  bill  would  give  prefects  or  departments 
authority,  while  the  war  lasts,  to  regulate,  limit,  and 
even  forbid  the  sale  of  alcoholic  beverages  except 
wine,  beer,  cider,  perry,  and  hydromel.  Of  course, 
this  is  a  war  measure  pure  and  simple;  it  does  not 
go  to  the  root  of  the  drink  issue,  and  in  consequence 
has  been  bitterly  assailed  by  les  temperants,  who  in 
this  instance  cannot  be  called  apostles  of  an  empty 
enthusiasm. 


FRANCE  157 

Within  three  generations  the  drink  habits  of  France 
have  undergone  profound  changes.  It  was  one  of  the 
soberest  countries  of  Europe  and  has  become  the 
most  alcoholic.  According  to  Dr.  Bertillon,  the  con- 
sumption of  alcohol  has  increased  about  sixfold  in 
sixty  years.  Various  forms  of  distilled  liquors  have 
supplanted  wine  as  a  national  beverage.  Some  have 
tried  to  connect  this  phenomenon  with  the  growth  of 
the  absinthe  habit ;  it  is,  however,  a  product  of  the 
unrestricted  liberty  to  sell  spirits.  In  France  there 
in  one  drink-shop,  in  which  alcohol  of  all  kinds  can 
be  sold,  to  82  inhabitants;  while  in  England  there  is 
one  to  430,  in  Sweden  one  to  5,000,  and  in  Norway 
one  to  about  10,000  inhabitants.  Only  the  Belgium 
of  ante-bellum  days  could  vie  with  France  in  the 
number  of  drink-shops. 

During  the  forty  years  preceding  1908  the  estab- 
lishments selling  intoxicants  had  increased  by  91,24)0, 
or  twenty-four  per  cent,  which  was  far  in  excess  of 
the  growth  of  the  population.  In  some  districts  there 
was  one  license  to  38  inhabitants,  women  and  chil- 
dren included.  One  village  in  Cambrai  had  one  drink- 
shop  to  10  inhabitants,  and  the  Commune  Dehiries 
of  twenty-one  qualified  electors  had  five  places  in 
which  liquor  was  sold. 

The  real  factor  back  of  this  extraordinary  con- 
dition is  the  distilling  interest.  There  are  more  than 
1,300,000  distillers  in  the  country,  says  Dr.  Bertil- 
lon, who  estimates  the  number  of  wine-growers  to  be 
even  greater.     Practically  there  is  no   restriction 


158      REFORM  IN  FOREIGN  COUNTRIES 

upon  the  distillation  of  spirits  from  cereals  and  fruit. 
Under  the  law  any  householder  may  produce  five 
gallons  of  spirits  for  home  use  free  of  taxes;  but  in 
reality  thousands  take  advantage  of  lax  supervision 
to  manufacture  spirits  for  sale.  It  has  been  asserted 
that  there  are  upward  of  a  million  places  through- 
out France  more  or  less  engaged  in  this  fraudulent 
practice.  Whatever  the  number  may  be,  we  know 
that  over  large  rural  areas  the  peasantry  not  only 
make  and  drink  spirits,  but  offer  it  for  sale  at  in- 
credibly low  prices. 

The  outcry  against  drink  in  the  France  of  to-day 
has  therefore  grim  reality  behind  it.  Visible  drunken- 
ness may  be  less  than  in  several  other  countries,  but 
spirits,  in  the  shape  of  aperitifs,  liqueurs,  and  so 
forth,  are  now  so  much  a  part  of  the  daily  diet  of 
the  peasantry,  and  of  laborers  in  particular,  that 
they  have  become  a  national  menace.  This  discovery 
is  not  new,  nor  are  temperance  reformers  and  scat- 
tered scientists  the  only  ones  who  have  drawn  at- 
tention to  it.  In  May  of  1915  the  syndicalist 
workmen  groups  of  all  trades  represented  at  the 
Nantes  Labor  Exchange  (Loire-Inferieure)  unani- 
mously declared  that  the  **  multiplicity  of  drink- 
shops  and  the  diversity  of  harmful  products  dis- 
played are  a  real  and  ceaseless  provocation "  to 
alcoholism,  which,  they  say,  bears  especially  hard 
upon  workmen's  families.  Therefore  they  indorse  the 
edict  against  absinthe  and  "  approve  the  suppression 
of  all  similar  substances  and  the  special  privileges 


FRANCE  159 

accorded  distillers."  The  same  resolutions  were 
adopted  by  the  dockers  at  Havre. 

Solicitude  over  the  drink  situation  is  likewise 
marked  among  the  intellectual  classes.  The  French 
Academy  of  Medicine  has  long  labored  with  it. 
France  was  one  of  the  prime  movers  in  the  formation 
of  the  International  Committee  for  the  Scientific 
Study  of  the  Alcohol  Question,  under  the  presi- 
dency of  ex-President  Loubet,  while  M.  Alexandre 
Ribot,  now  Minister  of  Finance,  is  chairman  of  the 
French  section,  which  counts  many  distinguished 
members.  France  also  possesses  a  varied,  if  not  espe- 
cially significant,  anti-alcohol  literature.  Why,  then, 
does  temperance  reform  progress  so  slowly?  It  has 
been  said  that  "  No  French  minister  of  the  present 
day  is  bold  enough  to  stand  up  against  the  wine- 
growing industry  or  the  1,378,000  distillers."  That 
may  be  an  exaggeration,  but  skirts  close  to  the  truth. 
It  is  no  secret  that  the  powerful  distilling  interests 
have  directed  French  diplomatic  objections  to  the 
enactment  of  prohibition  in  other  countries, — in  Fin- 
land, for  instance, — and  that  they  have  insisted  upon 
the  right  (much  against  the  advice  of  the  colonial 
administration )  to  sell  cheap  brandies  among  the  Mo- 
hammedan population  of  North  Africa,  the  Negroes 
of  French  West  Africa,  and  the  people  of  French 
Indo-China,  Madagascar,  and  other  places.  These 
interests  are  undoubtedly  the  mainspring  of  the 
*'  curse  of  alcoholism  "  both  at  home  and  abroad. 

Then  in  France,  as  in  many  other  countries,  the 


160      REFORM  IN  FOREIGN  COUNTRIES 

cause  of  sobriety  suffers  from  the  intemperate  zeal  of 
certain  reformers.  The  rise  of  a  political  temperance 
party  is  not  welcomed,  with  its  aspirants  for  political 
honors  who  are  willing  to  bend  their  necks  to  that 
species  of  temperance  servitude  without  conviction 
which  is  so  ingloriously  exemplified  in  our  own  coun- 
try. Even  in  the  stress  of  war,  any  interference  with 
personal  habits  is  peculiarly  obnoxious  to  Frenchmen. 
WrathfuUy  M.  Guyot  exclaims  apropos  of  the  pro- 
posed drink  regulations : — 

"  Les  temperants,  atteints  d'un  *  delirium,'  pire 
que  le  *  delirium  tremens,'  pietinent,  dechirent,  et 
saccagent  les  principes  elementaires  de  la  liberte  in- 
dividuelle  et  du  respect  de  la  propriete !  Leur  intoxi- 
cation intellectuelle  et  morale  est  autrement  dan- 
gereuse  que  toutes  les  intoxications  alcooliques." 

Of  prohibition  as  a  policy  there  is  little  discus- 
sion. To  be  sure,  the  National  Council  of  French 
Women  recently  declared  for  the  complete  prohibi- 
tion of  the  sale  of  spirits,  but  only  as  a  war  meas- 
ure, apparently. 

Reasonable  leaders  of  the  temperance  movement, 
like  M.  Joseph  Reinach,  recognize  that  the  French 
people  will  not  surrender  freedom  of  action  to  legis- 
lation and  cannot  be  coerced  into  greater  sobriety. 
Therefore  its  program  is  limited  to  a  restriction 
of  selling  privileges  and  a  better  control  of  the  dis- 
tillation of  alcohol.  In  1911  the  French  Senate,  fol- 
lowing the  recommendation  of  M.  Reinach,  adopted 
a  law  permitting  one  licensed  place  to  200  inhabi- 


FRANCE  161 

tants ;  the  effect  of  which  would  be  to  reduce  the  total 
number  to  about  180,000.  Towns  and  country  dis- 
tricts with  less  than  600  people  would  be  restricted 
to  three  licenses.  The  law  also  contained  certain 
limitations  in  regard  to  the  sale  of  spirits  contain- 
ing more  than  twenty-three  per  cent  of  alcohol;  and 
some  exceptions  were  made  in  favor  of  places  selling 
only  "  hygienic  drinks,"  wine  and  beer.  Under  this 
law  the  prefects  and  departmental  health  boards  were 
made  the  licensing  authorities  and  not  the  mayors 
and  municipal  councils  as  previously.  This  law  was 
accepted  by  the  Chamber  of  Deputies  but  did  not  be- 
come operative  until  1915.  Apparently  it  was  super- 
seded by  military  regulations.  In  order  to  limit 
distillation  some  communes  have  established  their 
own  distilleries.  The  real  temperance  campaign  in 
France  is  directed  against  distilled  liquors,  which  are 
held  responsible  for  the  alcoholism  from  which  France 
has  suffered.  There  is  no  thought  of  stopping  the 
sale  of  beer  and  wine.  Rather  the  effort  is  to  encour- 
age their  use  as  the  accustomed  and  natural  beverages 
of  the  people  in  its  temperate  days.  War  times 
seem  to  have  diminished  drinking  generally,  but  not 
through  law.  The  soldiers  still  receive  their  ration 
of  rum,  says  an  undoubted  authority,  though  it  is 
not  acknowledged  officially.  M.  Vidal,  of  the  Academy 
of  Medicine,  recently  asked  for  a  resolution  demand- 
ing the  regular  distribution  to  all  soldiers  of  a  hy- 
gienic beverage — ^wine  or  beer.  And  Professor  Lan- 
douzey  has  called  attention  to  the  deficiency  of  the 


162      REFORM  IN  FOREIGN  COUNTRIES 

French  army  ration  in  carbohydrates,  which  he  would 
equalize  by  adding  an  allowance  of  wine. 

That  the  French  temperance  movement  has  been 
stimulated  by  the  war  is  patent.  What  its  final 
direction  will  be  cannot  be  predicted,  for  as  yet  it 
has  not  recorded  notable  triumphs. 

m 

GREAT    BRITAIN 

The  recent  heroic  onslaughts  upon  the  drink  traffic 
by  Mr.  Lloyd  George  and  others  ended  tamely. 
England  did  not  respond  to  the  call  for  prohibition, 
or  show  any  patriotic  enthusiasm  for  personal  ab- 
stinence. The  castigation  of  the  workmen,  whose 
drink  habits  were  blamed  for  delay  in  producing  war 
materials,  and  for  general  inefficiency,  reacted  unfa- 
vorably. Other  shortcomings  were  brought  to  light, 
although  gross  intemperance  among  laborers  could 
not  be  denied,  and  quite  likely  it  had  been  stimulated 
by  the  peculiar  circumstances  caused  by  the  war. 

When  a  coalition  government  was  formed,  all 
prospects  of  radical  drink  laws  waned.  The  Liberals, 
who  profess  a  leaning  toward  temperance  reform, 
had  proved  unequal  to  the  task ;  and  since  the  Union- 
ists and  Conservatives,  as  parties,  do  not  incline  to 
drink  reform,  the  visions  of  national  prohibition  faded 
rapidly.  The  agitation  and  turmoil  of  weeks  yielded 
as  a  net  result  the  establishment  of  a  commission 
endowed  with  large  discretionary  power  in  control- 


GREAT  BRITAIN  163 

ling  liquor  selling  within  munition  and  transporta- 
tion areas.  Mr.  Lloyd  George's  proposal  to  national- 
ize the  drink  traffic  was  not  laid  before  Parliament. 
The  more  extreme  temperance  interests  did  not  ap- 
prove it ;  the  cost  and  financial  risk  were  prohibitive ; 
and  to  instigate  a  country-wide  fight  on  the  drink 
issue  during  the  war  might  mean  a  political  disaster. 
Nor  was  it  found  practicable  at  once  to  close  the  dis- 
tilleries and  stop  the  sale  of  spirits,  for  this  demanded 
a  compensation  to  the  trade  to  which  the  teetotalers 
generally  object. 

The  work  of  the  Board  of  Control  seems  to  have 
given  a  reasonable  amount  of  satisfaction.  The 
earlier  closing  hours,  stricter  supervision,  and  curtail- 
ment of  other  privileges  appear  to  have  had  a  whole- 
some effect.  How  much  is  attributable  to  better  regu- 
lations and  how  much  to  the  sobering  conditions  of 
war  it  is  difficult  to  say.  The  attempt  to  arouce  en- 
thusiasm for  personal  abstinence  at  least  during  war 
times  cannot  be  said  to  have  been  especially  success- 
ful. Whether  the  experiences  with  the  new  method 
of  controlling  the  liquor  traffic  have  been  sufficiently 
encouraging  to  warrant  the  eventual  nationalization 
of  the  business,  as  some  hope  for,  is  another  question. 

At  this  writing  (March,  1916),  however,  a  very 
radical  step  has  been  taken  which  promises  to  have 
a  wide  effect  in  diminishing  the  consumption  of 
spirits.  Under  the  Defence  of  the  Realm  Act  Mr. 
Lloyd  George  has  taken  over  most  of  the  distilleries 
in  Great  Britain,  to  the  number  of  more  than  eight 


164      REFORM  IN  FOREIGN  COUNTRIES 

hundred.  Their  output  is  to  be  utilized,  so  far  as 
needed,  for  technical  purposes  incident  to  the  war. 
Another  purpose  is  probably  to  conserve  the  grain, 
corn,  and  potatoes  used  in  distilleries.  Although 
large  stocks  of  spirits  remain  in  the  hands  of  dealers, 
the  increase  in  price  and  the  cessation  of  a  new  supply 
will  necessarily  result  in  a  greatly  reduced  consump- 
tion. Especially  will  the  sale  of  gin  be  curtailed, 
which  in  England  is  perhaps  the  most  prolific  source 
of  alcoholism.  According  to  Mr.  Lloyd  George  the 
apprehensions  for  drunkenness  have  decreased  by 
about  forty  per  cent.  How  much  of  this  is  due  to 
abnormal  conditions  of  the  population  on  account  of 
the  war  and  how  much  to  the  restriction  of  drink- 
selling  it  is  impossible  to  say. 

The  drink  evil  is  undeniably  acute  in  England; 
that  Mr.  Lloyd  George's  major  proposals  were  de- 
feated does  not  prove  the  contrary.  The  teetotalers 
have  made  comparatively  little  progress ;  and  because 
they  are  merely  repressive,  the  liquor  laws  of  Eng- 
land have  failed  to  check  intemperance.  In  licensing, 
the  practice  of  the  justices  lacks  certainty  and  uni- 
formity. The  many  and  complex  laws  as  well  as  local 
regulations  are  merely  restrictive — to  prevent  ex- 
cesses on  the  part  of  the  vender.  Constructive  prin- 
ciples, without  which  drink  reform  is  but  a  trans- 
parent show,  are  wholly  wanting.  Perhaps  the  worst 
feature  of  the  situation  is  the  so-called  "  tied-house 
system."  It  means  that  the  trade  has  acquired  about 
ninety  per  cent  of  the  licensed  drink-places  in  the 


GREAT  BRITAIN  165 

country  and  furnishes  the  retailer  his  capital,  so 
that  "  though  he  is  a  tenant  in  name,  he  is  often  but 
a  slave  in  fact."  The  sole  object  of  a  tied  house  is 
to  push  the  sale  of  drink,  for  that  alone  gives  it  value 
to  the  owner;  and  legislation  helps  on  this  condition 
by  making  the  size  of  the  house,  not  the  quantity  of 
liquor  sold,  the  basis  of  taxation.  In  other  words, 
the  law  holds  out  a  premium  to  the  licensee  who  can 
sell  the  greatest  quantity  of  alcohol  in  the  smallest 
possible  selling  space !  Diversions  and  attractions 
other  than  drink  are  not  encouraged,  and  in  some 
places  are  absolutely  forbidden.  It  is  said  that  the 
technicalities  of  the  licensing  system  can  hardly  be 
understood  by  a  layman ;  it  seems  in  part  to  assume 
a  tied-house  system  and  helps  to  perpetuate  it  with 
all  its  faults. 

The  licensing  statistics  of  England  point  to  an 
increase  rather  than  a  decrease  in  drunkenness  dur- 
ing the  past  three  or  four  years.  There  has  been  a 
reduction  of  licensed  places,  but  they  have  to  a  con- 
siderable extent  been  replaced  by  clubs  which  are 
exempt  from  license,  limitation  of  hours  of  sale,  and 
inspection.  The  situation  is  undoubtedly  serious, 
and  although  sane  suggestions  are  not  wanting,  there 
is  little  prospect  of  effective  remedial  legislation. 
The  trade  is  conservative  and  will  not  yield. 

Meanwhile  England  affords  examples  of  practical 
reform  through  private  enterprise  in  the  so-called 
Public-house  Trust  companies.  The  trust  system 
is  in  brief  the  Gothenburg  system  adapted  to  Eng- 


166      REFORM  IN  FOREIGN  COUNTRIES 

lish  conditions.  Its  cardinal  principle  is  the  elimina- 
tion of  private  profits  from  the  retail  sale  of  alcoholic 
beverages,  the  business  being  conducted  by  paid  man- 
agers under  the  control  of  directors  who  receive  no 
pecuniary  benefit  other  than  a  fixed  maximum  rate 
of  interest  upon  the  capital  shares  held  by  them,  the 
surplus  being  devoted  to  objects  of  public  utility. 
The  managers  get  a  commission  on  all  sales  except  of 
alcoholic  drinks,  and  thus  have  every  incentive  not  to 
push  that  side  of  the  business.  Various  amusements 
and  other  attractions  are  provided. 

The  experiments  with  the  Public-house  Trust  sys- 
tem began  at  Aberdeen  in  1895.  Under  the  leader- 
ship of  Lord  Grey  it  has  been  extensively  developed 
during  the  past  fifteen  years,  although  at  the  outset 
it  was  fought  by  the  trade,  misrepresented  by  the 
temperance  party,  distrusted  by  the  officials  and  the 
public,  and,  as  a  voluntary  affair,  remained  unas- 
sisted by  legislation.  Experience  and  capacity  for 
the  business  had  to  be  acquired  by  degrees.  Yet  the 
system  grew  and  flourished :  if  a  few  companies  failed, 
others  were  amalgamated  and  became  the  stronger. 
At  present  more  than  320  houses  are  operated  on  the 
trust  plan.  One  of  the  largest,  known  as  the  Home 
Counties  Public-house  Trust,  manages  60  houses, 
"  in  town  and  country,  slum  and  village,  colliery  and 
other  industrial  areas,  and  in  lonely  districts."  As 
a  business  venture  it  has  been  successful.  Beyond 
this  it  is  sufficient  to  relate  that  "  the  company  em- 
ploys approximately  900  managers  and  assistants. 


GREAT  BRITAIN  167 

and  during  its  ten  years'  existence  has  served  more 
than  eleven  millions  of  customers.  During  the  whole 
of  this  period  not  a  single  employee  has  been  con- 
victed of  a  breach  of  the  Licensing  Acts  or  in  respect 
of  any  other  offense."  In  these  years  "  the  non- 
alcoholic receipts  have  risen  from  less  than  ten  per 
cent  to  more  than  forty-eight  per  cent  of  the  whole." 

The  Public-house  Trust  system  exemplifies  what 
so  many  seem  still  to  doubt — that  drink-selling  can 
be  made  respectable  and  be  surrounded  with  a  whole- 
some atmosphere.  Of  course,  the  ultimate  object  of 
Lord  Grey,  Mr.  Arthur  Sherwell,  M.P.,  and  other 
exponents  of  the  company  system  idea  may  be  to 
nationalize  the  retail  sale  of  drink.  Meanwhile  they 
have  provided  a  highly  important  object-lesson  in 
practical  methods  of  counteracting  intemperance 
through  the  institution  of  "  disinterested  "  for  "  tied- 
house  "  management  in  the  public  houses.  An  increas- 
ing number  of  temperance  reformers  is  said  to  believe 
in  it,  but  of  course  it  is  rejected  by  all  who  are 
obsessed  with  the  idea  of  absolute  prohibition  as  the 
only  legislative  measure  they  can  countenance. 

On  a  much  smaller  scale  the  disinterested  com- 
pany system  has  been  tried  both  in  Scotland  and  in 
Ireland.  Scotland  has  also  a  licensing  act  of  quite 
recent  date  which  seeks  to  correct  some  ancient  abuses 
and  is  said  to  have  diminished  drunkenness  quite  per- 
ceptibly, particularly  by  restricting  the  hours  of  sale. 
The  law  originated  in  1912  and  proposed,  among 
other  things,  that  on  the  petition  of  twenty  per  cent 


168      REFORM  IN  FOREIGN  COUNTRIES 

of  the  voters  an  election  must  be  held  on  these  three 
issues :  (1)  a  continuance  of  licensing  as  before ;  (2)  a 
reduction  in  licenses  (twenty-five  per  cent)  ;  and  (3) 
no  license.  The  first  and  second  questions  are  to  be 
decided  by  simple  majorities;  but  in  order  to  estab- 
lish a  no-license  policy  the  majority  must  equal 
thirty  per  cent  of  the  electors.  If  the  election  is  In 
favor  of  no  license  the  local  authorities  may  never- 
theless continue  the  old  and  grant  new  hotel  licenses, 
which,  however,  permit  sales  only  to  resident  guests. 
If  the  votes  cast  for  no-license  do  not  represent  the 
prescribed  qualified  majority  for  local  prohibition 
they  are  reckoned  as  being  cast  for  a  reduction  of 
licenses.  New  elections  may  be  demanded  every  third 
year. 

The  law  was  finally  adopted  in  1913,  with  few 
changes.  Certain  minor  portions  became  operative 
in  the  following  year,  but  those  governing  elections 
will  not  be  in  force  until  June,  1920.  In  order  to 
secure  no-license  a  majority  is  required  of  fifty -five 
per  cent  of  the  votes  cast,  which  must  constitute 
thirty-five  per  cent  of  the  whole  number  of  qualified 
voters.  «  rtoii,. 

IV 

GERMANY 

In  Germany,  the  Great  War  does  not  seem  to  have 
aroused  special  concern  about  intemperance.  Mili- 
tary safeguards  have  been  adopted,  and  for  economic 


GERMANY  169 

reasons  the  output  of  beer  and  spirits  has  been  cur- 
tailed. The  soldiers  in  the  field  have  been  allowed 
beer  and  wine,  with  modest  quantities  of  spirits  dur- 
ing the  severe  winter  days, — at  least  so  one  gathers 
from  private  letters  and  newspapers. 

But  Germany,  of  course,  has  a  drinlc  problem ;  the 
statistics  of  consumption  attest  that,  and  in  the  eyes 
of  many  people  it  looms  large.  There,  as  elsewhere, 
the  use  of  spirits  causes  the  mischief.  How  the  ex- 
tent of  known  alcoholism  compares  with  that  of  other 
countries  cannot  be  determined.  There  is  no  evi- 
dence, however,  that  either  the  economic  or  the  mili- 
tary powers  of  Germany  have  been  greatly  impaired 
by  drink. 

There  are  many  active  abstinence  organizations, 
whose  leadership  is,  in  some  instances,  in  the  hands 
of  men  of  note  and  scientific  attainments.  Their 
eiForts  are  chiefly  directed  to  teaching  personal  hy- 
giene and  advocating  abstinence.  The  idea  of  pro- 
hibition in  the  American  sense  of  the  term  is  wholly 
foreign  to  the  German  people,  to  whom  beer  and,  in 
some  states,  wine  form  an  important  part  of  the  daily 
diet.  And  as  prohibition  is  not  an  issue,  the  numer- 
ous political  groups  are  still  without  a  temperance 
party. 

In  1915  the  distillers  were  restricted  to  sixty  per 
cent  of  their  usual  output  of  spirits,  and  sixty-five 
per  cent  of  the  whole  quantity  was  ordered  to  be  de- 
natured, so  that  only  thirty-five  per  cent  remained 
for  human  consumption.     The  hours  of  sale  have 


170      REFORM  IN  FOREIGN  COUNTRIES 

been  restricted  and  in  Berlin  orders  were  issued  not 
to  serve  spirits  of  any  kind  to  persons  in  uniform. 
In  other  parts  of  the  country  even  severer  regula- 
tions appear  to  be  in  force.  The  prescriptions  of 
the  Sanitary  Division  of  the  Army  contain  special 
warnings  against  alcohol  indulgence  which  have  been 
emphasized  in  orders  of  the  general  staff. 

It  is  strangely  difficult  to  obtain  a  complete  pres- 
entation of  the  liquor  legislation  for  the  entire  Ger- 
man empire.  The  Society  Against  the  Abuse  of 
Spirituous  Drinks  has  for  some  time  been  engaged 
upon  a  large  work  intended  to  supply  the  need.  The 
basic  principle  followed  in  licensing  places  to  sell 
intoxicants  is  whether  there  is  public  need  of  it. 
Prior  to  the  War  the  Reichstag  had  under  considera- 
tion some  changes  in  liquor  legislation.  The  most 
important  were:  (1)  Persons  desiring  to  conduct  a 
hostelry  or  to  sell  wine  and  beer  as  well  as  non-intoxi- 
cants, must  have  a  license;  (2)  A  license  is  to  be  de- 
nied when  the  petitioner  for  it  is  shown  to  be  untrust- 
worthy or  liable  to  abuse  the  privilege  in  various 
ways ;  when  the  quarters  to  be  occupied  do  not  satisfy 
the  requirements  of  the  police ;  and  when  no  necessity 
for  the  license  has  been  shown.  (3)  Retail  of  spirits 
must  not  be  carried  on  in  connection  with  the  sale  of 
non-spirituous  drinks  or  with  the  restaurant  business. 
For  the  rest,  the  central  State  authorities  are  given 
a  wide  latitude  in  prescribing  special  regulations 
in  the  interest  of  civil  control  and  the  prevention  of 
excesses.     For  liquor  businesses  existing  at  the  time 


ITALY  171 

when  the  proposed  law  becomes  operative  the  right 
to  continuance  expires  twenty-five  years  after  the 
adoption  of  the  law,  even  if  no  special  license  had  been 
required. 

If  the  German  liquor  laws  offer  little  of  interest  to 
American  students,  much  may  be  learned  from  the 
method  of  operating  licensed  places.  The  fact  that 
specially  fermented  liquors  are  generally  sold  in 
family  resorts  in  the  best  sense  of  the  term  no  doubt 
has  been  a  great  help  to  sobriety;  but  this  custom 
eprings  from  national  characteristics  rather  than 
from  law,  although  legislation  may  be  said  to  encour- 
age it — an  instructive  contrast  to  our  legal  contri- 
vances for  "  diminishing  temptation." 

Germany  is  perhaps  the  largest  contributor  to  the 
scientific  study  of  alcohol,  and  from  the  varied  litera- 
ture on  the  subject  both  prohibitionists  and  other 
temperance  reformers  derive  their  arguments. 


ITALY 

Italy  is  beginning  to  have  a  drink  problem,  influ- 
ences from  the  United  States  and  the  Argentine  shar- 
ing the  dubious  honor  of  having  helped  to  create  it. 
So  long  as  the  Italians  remained  a  wine-drinking  peo- 
ple, they  were  counted  among  the  most  temperate 
in  Europe,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  the  per 
capita  consumption,  when  considered  in  terms  of 
pure  alcohol,  reached  a  very  high  figure.    As  in  Spain 


172     REFORM  IN  FOREIGN  COUNTRIES 

and  Portugal,  the  habitual  use  of  natural  wines  did 
not  produce  alcoholism  and  its  brood  of  evils ;  but 
in  recent  years  returning  emigrants  have  transplanted 
the  whiskey  habit  to  what  appears  to  be  a 
congenial  soil,  for  the  Italian  government  has  felt 
obliged  to  enact  new  laws  curbing  the  traffic  in 
spirits. 

Previously  opportunity  to  traffic  in  all  kinds  of 
spirituous  drinks  was  practically  unlimited.  But  in 
1913  a  law  was  adopted,  to  become  effective  January 
1,  1915,  which  aims  to  restrict  the  abuse  of  alcohol. 
It  provides,  among  other  things,  that  no  drinks  con- 
taining more  than  twenty-one  per  cent  of  alcohol  may 
be  sold  without  a  special  license.  Their  sale  is  also 
absolutely  forbidden  on  Sundays  and  holidays,  as  well 
as  on  days  preceding  elections.  Licenses  are  granted 
by  the  communal  authorities  and  a  commission  is 
established  for  each  province.  In  communes  or  parts 
of  communes  in  which  the  number  of  places  for  the 
sale  of  beer,  wine,  or  alcoholic  drinks  of  any  kind 
exceeds  one  to  five  hundred  inhabitants,  no  new  li- 
cense for  retail  use  may  be  granted.  The  produc- 
tion, importation,  and  sale  of  absinthe  is  prohibited. 

VI 
AUSTEIA-HUNGAEY 

In  Austria-Hungary,  which  is  a  conglomerate  of 
heterogeneous  nationalities,  the  drink  habits  vary 
greatly ;  also  in  regard  to  the  kinds  of  beverages  most 


BELGIUM  173 

favored.  Some  provinces  are  chiefly  beer-  and  wine- 
drinking  ;  in  others  the  use  of  distilled  spirits  is  most 
prevalent.  The  per  capita  consumption  of  spirits 
for  the  whole  empire  is  very  high  (see  Appendix)  and 
betokens  a  drink  problem  of  great  dimensions.  The 
present  liquor  legislation  is  not  effectual  in  coping 
with  it  and  offers  little  that  is  instructive. 

vn 

BELGIUM 

Prior  to  the  Great  War  liberty  in  regard  to  the 
sale  of  alcoholic  beverages  was  perhaps  greater  than 
in  any  European  country.  The  law  of  1912  had,  to 
be  sure,  introduced  a  species  of  licensing  system,  but 
it  did  not  require  special  moral  or  administrative 
qualifications  on  the  part  of  the  licensees  except  that 
persons  guilty  of  certain  crimes  or  having  a  prison 
record  or  having  objected  to  pay  taxes  were  denied 
selling  privileges  which  were  issued  by  a  commis- 
sioner of  taxation.  The  license  tax  fee  varied 
from  300  to  1,000  francs  according  to  the  den- 
sity of  population  in  the  place  where  it  was  to  be 
used  and  was  paid  in  advance  once  for  all.  When 
this  law  went  into  effect  there  were  212,000  licenses 
in  force  and  the  tax  did  not  seem  to  diminish  their 
number.  It  is  stated  that  in  1913  the  total  number 
of  places  at  which  alcoholic  drinks  could  be  obtained 
was  240,000,  or  one  to  every  33  inhabitants.  But 
as  women  and  children  were  included  in  this  num- 


174      REFORM  IN  FOREIGN  COUNTRIES 

ber  there  would  be  one  drink-shop  to  every  12 
adult  males.  The  income  of  the  state  from  the 
drink  traffic  was  reckoned  to  constitute  about  one- 
sixth  of  its  total  income. 

vin 

THE    COMMONWEALTH    OF   AUSTRALIA 

The  temperance  movement  in  the  Australian  col- 
onies is  interesting  because  of  its  intensity  and  the 
experimental  legislation  rising  out  of  the  effort  to 
introduce  local  option  and  general  prohibition. 
The  sentiment  for  abstinence  was  quite  recently  re- 
flected in  a  resolution  by  the  Federal  Parliament 
providing  for  the  establishment  of  a  new  capital  of 
the  Commonwealth  in  which  the  sale  of  intoxicants 
is  not  to  be  permitted.  It  is  said  that  none  of  the 
old  cities  were  selected  because  they  all  grant  li- 
censes. At  the  present  time  each  state  is  supreme 
in  regulating  the  liquor  traffic,  although  effort  is 
being  made  to  have  it  placed  under  Federal  control. 
In  the  following  we  shall  concern  ourselves  chiefly 
with  the  laws  relating  to  local  option  and  prohibi- 
tion. 

New  South  Wales:  Local  option  may  be  exer- 
cised in  the  following  manner:  At  every  parlia- 
mentary election  the  liquor  question  must  be  voted 
upon.  Both  women  and  men  are  entitled  to  vote 
and  are  called  upon  to  decide:  (1)  For  or  against 
the    continuation    of    liquor    selling;    (2)  For    or 


COAiMONWEALTH  OF  AUSTRALIA       175 

against  a  reduction  of  the  number  of  licenses;  and 
(3)  For  or  against  no  license. 

In  case  the  traffic  is  continued,  all  who  are  li- 
censed to  sell  intoxicants  within  the  election  dis- 
trict may  keep  on  with  their  business  as  before. 
But  if  a  majority  favor  a  reduction  of  licenses,  a 
commission  of  three,  of  whom  one  must  be  a  judge, 
decide  which  establishments  shall  be  closed.  The 
acceptance  of  prohibition  self-evidently  results  in 
the  cessation  of  all  kinds  of  liquor  selling,  but  pro- 
ducers may  continue  with  their  business  for  sale  out- 
side the  prohibition  district. 

In  order  to  obtain  prohibition  or  the  re-establish- 
ment of  licenses,  three-fifths  majority  is  necessary 
and  thirty  per  cent  of  the  votes  of  the  electors.  A 
simple  majority  suffices  to  secure  a  reduction  or  a 
continuation  of  the  traffic.  The  votes  cast  for  pro- 
hibition when  not  sufficiently  numerous  to  carry  it 
are  regarded  as  cast  for  a  reduction  of  licenses. 
When  prohibition  is  voted  it  becomes  operative  three 
years  after  the  election.  During  the  interim  the  li- 
censes are  called  in  gradually. 

South  Australia:  In  local  option  elections  the 
number  of  licenses  may  be  reduced  in  each  local 
option  district.  First,  however,  500  electors  cor- 
responding to  one-tenth  of  the  total  number  in 
the  district,  must  appeal  to  the  governor,  asking 
that  an  election  be  authorized.  An  increase  in  li- 
censes may  similarly  be  petitioned  for.  At  elections 
it  may  be  voted  to  reduce  the  number  of  licenses, 


176      REFORM  IN  FOREIGN  COUNTRIES 

to  continue  the  prevailing  number,  and  to  increase 
it.  A  simple  majority  is  enough  to  decide  a  diminu- 
tion in  licenses. 

Tasmania:  A  law  which  becomes  effective  in 
1917  prescribes,  among  other  things,  that  the  num- 
ber of  licenses  existing  in  1908  may  not  be  increased 
unless  a  majority  of  men  and  women  entitled  to 
vote  who  live  within  a  radius  of  one  mile  from  the 
center  where  it  is  proposed  to  establish  a  drink 
place  decide  that  the  increase  is  demanded  because 
of  the  growth  of  population. 

In  every  civil  subdivision  (urban  or  rural)  hav- 
ing more  than  one  license  an  election  is  obligatory 
every  three  years,  beginning  in  1917,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  deciding  whether  the  existing  number  of  li- 
censes shall  be  retained  or  reduced.  In  order  to 
make  the  vote  effective  it  is  necessary  that  the  ma- 
jority consist  of  at  least  twenty-five  per  cent  of  the 
total  number  of  electors. 

Queensland:  A  law  of  1912  which  only  became 
effective  in  1914  makes  no  provisions  for  local  op- 
tion elections.  Until  1925  only  the  question  of  re- 
ducing licenses  comes  before  the  voters.  In  1916 
the  question  is  of  a  reduction  of  one-fourth  of  all 
the  existing  licenses;  in  1919  that  of  a  further  re- 
duction of  one-fourth,  and  in  1922  of  a  reduction 
of  another  one-fourth.  At  each  election  one-tenth 
of  the  qualified  electors  must  vote  and  a  simple  ma- 
jority is  sufficient  to  make  the  reduction  effective. 
In  1925  prohibition  may  be  voted  on,  but  its  ac- 


COMMONWEALTH  OF  AUSTRALIA       177 

ceptance    requires    a    three-fourths    majority    and 
thirty-five  per  cent  of  the  total  number  of  electors. 

West  Australia:  Local  option  will  be  introduced 
in  1921.  A  three-fifths  majority  is  necessary  for 
the  adoption  of  local  prohibition. 

Victoria:  This  colony  has  largely  copied  the 
liquor  legislation  of  New  Zealand.  Beginning  with 
the  year  1917  it  may  be  decided  at  local  elections 
to  prohibit,  decrease,  or  continue  the  traffic  in  in- 
toxicants. At  the  present  time  Victoria  has  a  so- 
called  reduction  committee  which  has  authority  to 
close  all  superfluous  drink-places.  It  has  been  very 
active  and  during  the  years  1906  to  1912  closed 
613  places. 

New  Zealand:  In  connection  with  the  general 
elections  to  Parliament  the  voters  are  called  upon 
to  decide  how  far  within  each  election  district  li- 
censes shall  or  shall  not  be  granted.  In  districts 
where  licenses  are  in  force  it  may  be  voted  that  for 
the  future  no  licenses  shall  be  granted  or  that  the 
present  regulations  shall  be  continued.  The  ques- 
tion on  the  ballots  is  so  worded  that  a  vote  is  cast 
for  or  against  a  local  return  to  the  license  system. 
In  a  license  district  a  three-fifths  majority  of  the 
votes  cast  is  necessary  in  order  to  introduce  pro- 
hibition ;  it  is  furthermore  required  that  at  least 
one-half  of  the  qualified  electors  shall  have  taken 
part  in  the  election.  The  same  majority  is  required 
to  enable  a  district  to  return  to  license. 

In  connection  with  local  option  elections  a  vote 


178      REFORM  IN  FOREIGN  COUNTRIES 

is  also  taken  on  the  question  whether  prohibition 
is  desired  for  the  entire  state.  In  order  to  obtain 
state-wide  prohibition  the  same  requirements  are 
prescribed  in  regard  to  majorities  as  in  case  of 
local  option  elections.  If  prohibition  is  adopted  it 
becomes  operative  four  years  subsequent  to  the  elec- 
tion and  will  cover  the  sale,  manufacture,  importa- 
tion and  possession  of  alcohol.  Although  prohibi- 
tion may  be  adopted,  it  is  necessary  to  vote  every 
third  year  on  the  question  whether  it  should  be  re- 
tained or  repealed. 

New  Zealand  was  the  first  of  the  Australasian 
colonies  which  adopted  the  principle  of  popular 
election  for  or  against  licensing  the  sale  of  intoxi- 
cants. The  first  election  took  place  in  1904,  and 
resulted  in  a  decisive  defeat  of  prohibition.  In  that 
year  all  adult  persons,  women  and  men,  were  given  the 
franchise.  After  five  elections,  in  which  the  number 
of  votes  in  favor  of  prohibition  gradually  increased, 
a  majority  for  it  was  obtained  in  1908.  A  large 
number  of  districts  gave  a  majority  for  prohibition, 
but  liquor  selling  was  continued,  as  the  necessary 
three-fifths  majority  had  not  been  reached.  In 
twelve  districts  liquor  selling  was  voted  out  in  1911, 
the  vote  on  state-wide  prohibition  stood  259,000 
for  and  205,000  against,  or  in  favor  of  "  national 
continuance."  In  1914,  250,000  votes  were  cast  for 
national  continuance  as  against  247,000  in  favor  of 
national  prohibition.  In  four  years  there  has  thus 
been  a  change  in  sentiment  represented  by  65,000 


CANADA  179 

votes.  During  the  same  period  there  has  been  a  very 
marked  increase  in  the  vote  favoring  a  continuance 
of  licensing  within  the  local  option  districts. 

Under  local  prohibition  certain  exceptions  are 
made  permitting  the  sale  of  intoxicants  in  military 
canteens,  the  sale  at  public  auctions  in  amounts  of 
not  less  than  five  gallons,  the  sale  in  the  restaurant 
of  the  Parliament  Building  (an  exception  made  in  the 
case  of  one  or  two  of  the  other  Australasian  colonies), 
and  the  sale  for  consumption  off  the  premises  of 
native  wine  made  from  grapes  or  fruit  in  quantities 
of  not  less  than  two  gallons. 

DC 

CANADA 

Canada:  The  Canadian  liquor  legislation  ap- 
proaches our  own  in  essential  respects.  The  only 
Dominion  law  is  the  so-called  Canada  Temperance 
Act  of  1878,  with  certain  changes  made  in  1908, 
which  is  effective  in  a  number  of  counties  and 
municipalities.  For  the  rest,  the  sale  of  intoxicants 
is  chiefly  regulated  by  provincial  laws.  It  does  not 
appear  that  war  conditions  have  necessitated  far- 
reaching  new  regulations.  A  brief  statement  follows 
of  the  laws  now  in  force  in  the  various  provinces. 

Prince  Edward  Island:  Is  under  general  prohibi- 
tion. 

Nova  Scotia:  A  prohibition  law  was  passed  in 
1915,  applying  to  all  of  the  provinces  except  the 


180      REFORM  IN  FOREIGN  COUNTRIES 

city  of  Halifax.  It  was  defeated  so  far  as  this  city 
was  concerned  by  the  casting  vote  of  the  speaker, 
but  by  a  vote  taken  in  March,  1916,  Halifax  will 
come  under  prohibition.  The  law  is  administered  by 
the  provincial  government  through  deputy  inspectors. 

New  Brunswick:  The  total  number  of  licensed 
places  remaining  last  year  was  135,  mainly  dis- 
tributed among  cities  and  towns.  Local  option  laws 
after  the  American  pattern  are  available  for  small 
municipalities,  and  in  some  counties  the  Canada 
Temperance  Act  is  enforced. 

Quebec:  Under  a  local  option  law  passed  before 
confederation  about  900  parishes,  almost  two-thirds 
of  the  total  number,  have  been  laid  dry. 

Ontario:  The  Canada  Temperance  Act  is  in 
force  and  a  local  option  law  which  requires  a  three- 
fifths  vote  for  the  abolition  of  the  sale  of  liquor.  In 
January  of  1915  there  were  535  dry  local  commu- 
nities out  of  a  total  of  828;  328  were  under  local 
option,  45  under  the  Canada  Temperance  Act,  and 
162  were  without  licenses  through  administrative  or 
other  act.  This  number  has  since  been  increased. 
About  290  communities  in  the  province  still  permit 
the  sale  of  liquor.  At  the  last  session  of  the  Legis- 
lature an  Act  was  passed  providing  for  a  provincial 
license  commission  with  wide  powers.  It  gives  the 
government  almost  a  free  hand,  and  the  commission 
is  said  to  have  done  valuable  work  in  regulating  the 
traflBc  and  punishing  offenders. 

Manitoba :   Not  far  from   one-half  of    the  local 


DENMARK  181 

communities  have  availed  themselves  of  the  local  op- 
tion law  to  exclude  drink  selling.  Both  political 
parties  are  committed  to  the  abolition  of  bars  in 
saloons.  A  recent  election  points  to  the  adoption  of 
prohibition. 

Saskatchewan:  A  law  went  into  force  in  July, 
1915,  which  cancels  all  wholesale  and  retail  licenses 
with  the  exception  of  the  so-called  "  shop  licenses  " 
which  the  government  avails  itself  of,  following  the 
methods  of  the  dispensary  system.  No  popular  vote 
was  taken  before  the  law  was  enacted.  It  is  pro- 
vided, however,  that  the  whole  system  of  licensing 
may  be  re-established  by  referendum  vote  at  the  end 
of  the  War  but  not  before  December  1,  1916. 

Alberta:  The  province  adopted  prohibition  by 
popular  vote  in  1915.  It  does  not  go  into  effect 
until  July  of  1916. 


DENMARK 

For  many  years  the  consumption  of  spirits  and 
beer  has  been  notably  high  in  Denmark.  The  law 
regulating  the  manufacture  and  sale  of  liquors  had 
practically  undergone  no  change  from  1857  to  1912. 
Then  after  a  careful  study  of  the  situation  under 
the  admirable  leadership  of  Dr.  S.  Ussing,  formerly 
Chief  Justice  of  the  Danish  Court  of  Appeals,  a 
new  law  was  adopted.  The  principal  changes 
adopted  may  be  summarized  as  follows:    A  body  of 


182      REFORM  IN  FOREIGN  COUNTRIES 

independent  legislation  has  been  acquired  governing 
the  manufacture  and  sale  of  intoxicants.  All  alco- 
holic drinks  containing  more  than  2^  per  cent 
(weight)  of  alcohol  have  been  placed  under  the  same 
conditions  in  regard  to  sale.  The  communal  coun- 
cils have  been  constituted  the  licensing  authorities, 
which  means  that  public  opinion  now  can  make  its 
influence  felt  in  the  selection  of  persons  to  be  placed 
in  control  also  of  the  drink  traffic. 

At  the  outset  the  law  was  regarded  with  more  or 
less  suspicion  by  the  total  abstinence  party,  but  the 
opportunity  to  influence  both  the  communal  councils 
and  the  police  administration  has  reconciled  it. 
One  eff'ect  of  the  law  is  to  do  away  with  the  drink- 
ing clubs  in  rural  districts  that  were  established  os- 
tensibly for  some  beneficent  object  but  really  in- 
tended to  give  individuals  a  chance  to  sell  drink 
without  restriction.  It  also  put  an  end  to  the  dis- 
tribution of  liquors  in  stores,  at  public  auctions,  etc., 
where  formerly  it  was  permitted  to  give  away 
liquors,  from  which  much  drunkenness  resulted.  It 
is  assumed  that  the  law  will  bring  about  a  large  re- 
duction in  licenses  although  previously  their  exces- 
sive number  in  proportion  to  population  was  not  ac- 
companied by  a  corresponding  increase  in  the  con- 
sumption of  alcohol.  Beer  containing  2^4  weight 
per  cent  of  alcohol  is  free  from  taxation.  An  in- 
creasing number  of  brewers  is  engaged  in  producing 
it  and  show  a  continuous  growth  of  output. 


HOLLAND  183 

XI 
HOLLAND 

Although  the  consumption  of  spirits  has  always 
stood  at  a  high  figure  in  Holland,  the  fact  does  not 
seem  to  have  occasioned  a  demand  for  very  rigid 
temperance  reform.  Licenses  to  sell  or  serve  spirits 
are  granted  by  the  magistrate  and  mayor  of  the  re- 
spective communes  except  that  hotel  and  club  priv- 
ileges are  obtained  from  the  provincial  commission. 
The  law  establishes  a  maximum  number  of  licenses  in 
proportion  to  population,  hotels  excepted.  In  com- 
munes with  a  population  of  less  than  10,000  there 
may  be  one  license  to  250  inhabitants,  with  a  rising 
scale  for  more  populous  communes  until  those  having 
more  than  50,000  population  are  reached,  in  which 
there  may  be  one  license  to  500  inhabitants.  Licenses 
are  granted  for  a  year  at  a  time  and  the  license  fee 
would  be  reckoned  low  from  an  American  point  of 
view.  The  qualifications  demanded  in  licensees  and 
the  general  restrictions  prescribed  by  law  are  not  of 
special  interest.  It  is  the  duty  of  the  Minister  of  the 
Interior  to  secure  the  enforcement  of  the  liquor  leg- 
islation. Inspectors  and  assistants  appointed  and 
discharged  by  the  government  aid  him  in  his  duties. 
In  addition,  the  law  of  1904  establishes  communal 
commissions  elected  for  a  period  of  three  years  who 
serve  without  pay  and  whose  duty  it  is  to  make  the 
drink  law  effective.     They   are  especially   intended 


184      REFORM  IN  FOREIGN  COUNTRIES 

to  call  attention  to  licenses  which  ought  to  be  with- 
drawn by  the  licensing  authorities. 

The  manufacture,  importation,  and  sale  of  ab- 
sinthe is  forbidden. 

In  order  to  serve  beer,  wine,  and  alcohol-free 
drinks  no  special  license  is  required,  but  simply  a 
commission  from  the  same  authorities  that  grant 
spirit  licenses.  The  same  general  regulations  govern 
the  sale,  but  there  is  no  limitation  upon  the  number 
of  places. 

xn 

ICEIAND 

This  colony  of  Denmark,  with  less  than  80,000 
inhabitants,  is  the  only  country  in  the  world  legally 
under  absolute  prohibition.  Except  for  an  unsuc- 
cessful experiment  in  the  Swedish  Lapmark  years 
ago,  this  is  the  first  known  attempt  of  its  kind.  Al- 
ready, in  1900,  the  manufacture  of  alcoholic  drinks 
was  forbidden,  and  in  1908  a  general  election  was 
held  in  which  4,645  votes  were  given  for  total  pro- 
hibition and  3,181  against,  only  males  voting. 
The  new  prohibition  law  became  wholly  effective 
January  1,  1915,  and  forbade  the  manufacture,  im- 
portation, and  sale  of  all  spirituous  drinks  contain- 
ing more  than  2^  weight  per  cent  of  alcohol.  An 
exception  is  made  in  regard  to  the  importation  of 
alcohol  for  medical  and  industrial  purposes,  and 
communion   wine   may   be   imported  by   certain   ec- 


ICELAND  185 

clesiastical  officials.  Very  strict  regulations  are  in 
effect  to  prevent  a  misappropriation  of  alcohol 
under  the  exemptions  mentioned.  Dealers  who  at 
the  time  the  law  went  into  force  had  alcoholic  goods 
left  over  were  obliged  to  make  a  report  of  this  fact, 
whereupon  the  goods  would  be  placed  under  seal  and 
the  owner  obliged  to  remove  them  from  the  country 
within  12  months.  Private  persons  who  on  the  1st 
of  January,  1915,  were  in  possession  of  spirits  were 
not  obliged  to  export  them  but  had  to  declare  the 
goods  to  the  chief  of  police;  at  the  beginning  of 
each  year  a  similar  declaration  must  be  made  until 
the  goods  have  been  used  up. 

Drastic  penalties  are  imposed  for  illicit  sale.  If 
spirits  are  found  in  the  possession  of  any  person 
who  is  incapable  of  or  refuses  to  explain  how  he 
obtained  them,  he  is  considered  guilty  of  violating 
the  law.  Severe  penalties  are  also  imposed  upon 
doctors  for  improperly  making  out  prescriptions 
for  alcohol.  Intoxicated  persons  are  obliged  to 
declare  to  the  court  where  they  obtained  the 
liquor. 

The  prohibition  law  had  not  been  long  in  force 
before  the  usual  signs  of  its  violation  and  circum- 
vention appeared.  According  to  newspaper  re- 
ports there  has  been  considerable  smuggling  of 
liquor  brought  to  Iceland  in  fishing  boats  and  other 
vessels.  In  the  absence  of  an  extensive  revenue  and 
police  service  the  opportunities  would  appear  to  be 
many.     The  law  has  not  had  a  sufficient  test,  how- 


186      REFORM  IN  FOREIGN  COUNTRIES 

ever,  to  allow  a  definite  conclusion  in  regard  to  its 
operation. 

SWITZERLAND 

Each  canton  has  its  own  separate  laws  govern- 
ing the  sale  of  liquor;  while  they  are  very  similar 
their  enforcement  varies.  Licenses  to  deal  in  intoxi- 
cating beverages  granted  by  the  Department  of 
Finance  upon  recommendation  of  the  communal  dis- 
trict councils. 

One  of  the  chief  clauses  in  the  Swiss  alcoholic 
legislation  is  the  portion  in  regard  to  "  necessity." 
It  is  assumed  that  no  license  shall  be  granted  unless 
it  meets  a  well-defined  public  demand,  and  new  li- 
censes are  denied  in  case  there  is  reason  to  suppose 
that  they  may  work  harm  to  the  community. 

The  number  of  licenses  permitted  in  proportion 
to  population  varies  greatly.  For  instance,  in 
Thurgan  one  is  permitted  to  100  inhabitants,  but 
in  Aargau  there  may  not  be  more  than  one  place 
for  serving  spirits  to  250  inhabitants.  In  many 
places    a   high-license   system   has   been   introduced. 

In  Switzerland  the  manufacture  of  spirits  is  a 
state  monopoly,  and  ten  per  cent  of  the  profits  are 
distributed  directly  among  the  different  cantons  for 
the  purpose  of  combating  alcoholism.  It  amounts 
to  about  half  a  million  francs  a  year.  During 
1914-1915   it  was   not  permitted  to   distill   spirits. 


NORWAY  AND  SWEDEN  187 

The  selling  of  spirits  by  the  monopoly  for  human 
consumption  has  apparently  been  given  up  for  an  in- 
definite time.  An  exception  is  made  of  a  very  lim- 
ited quantity  for  use  by  apothecaries  in  preparing 
medicine.  This  is,  of  course,  a  war  measure.  Pre- 
caution has  also  been  taken  to  prevent  the  military 
troops  in  service  from  using  spirits  while  on  duty. 

XIV 
NORWAY    AND    SWEDEN 

Sweden  and  Norway,  practically  alone  among  the 
countries  of  the  world,  illustrate  the  power  of  ra- 
tional liquor  legislation  to  reduce  the  consumption 
of  alcohol.  The  interesting  history  of  this  legisla- 
tion must  be  passed  by,  nor  is  there  space  to  tell 
its  operation  in  detail.  Both  must  be  sought  in  the 
voluminous  literature  of  the  subject,  which  has  long 
been  accessible  in  English  through  official  reports 
and  private  studies. 

During  the  greater  part  of  the  first  half  of  the 
last  century  Sweden  permitted  practically  free 
trade  in  the  manufacture  and  sale  of  spirits.  The 
consumption  of  spirits  rose  to  extraordinary  pro- 
portions and  with  terrible  effects.  "  The  very  mar- 
row of  the  nation  was  sapped;  moral  and  physical 
degradation  ...  all  those  grim  legions  of  evils 
that  ever  range  themselves  under  the  banner  of  in- 
temperance took  possession  of  the  land."  In  the 
rural  parishes  the  conditions  were  transformed  by 


188      REFORM  IN  FOREIGN  COUNTRIES 

the  simple  act  of  1855  forbidding  home  distillation, 
while  other  distilleries  were  subjected  to  a  high  ex- 
cise tax  and  the  rural  communities  were  given  a 
local  veto  over  sales.  The  towns,  which  suffered 
perhaps  even  more  from  drunkenness,  offered  a  dif- 
ferent problem;  but  it  was  not  thought  practicable 
or  expedient  to  try  to  place  them  under  prohibition. 
A  bold  remedy  for  a  desperate  situation  was  found 
in  the  organization  of  a  private  bolag,  or  company, 
in  the  city  of  Gothenburg,  which  gradually  took 
over  licenses  for  spirit-selling  on  the  condition  that 
the  shareholders  should  not  derive  the  slightest  ad- 
vantage from  sales  beyond  the  ordinary  rate  of  in- 
terest on  the  capital  invested,  and  that  the  profits 
should  be  devoted  to  charity  or  public  uses.  This 
was  the  genesis  of  the  famous  Gothenburg  system, 
which  in  the  course  of  time  became  extended  to  the 
whole  of  Sweden  and  eventually  reached  its  fullest 
development  and  fairest  trial  in  Norway. 

It  has  frequently  been  said  that  in  legislation  rel- 
ative to  the  company  system  Norway  began  where 
Sweden  left  off.  To  an  extent  this  is  true.  Norway 
had  the  immense  advantage  of  availing  itself  of  the 
Swedish  experience  and  of  thus  avoiding  some  of  the 
mistakes  made  by  the  pioneers  in  an  untraversed  field. 
Especially  at  the  outset  the  Gothenburg  system  in 
its  home  land  was  not  without  its  failures,  but  they 
were  of  a  kind  that  point  the  way  to  progress.  In 
Norway  the  drink  situation  was  less  acute  than  in 
Sweden  and  the  obstacles  of  ancient  privileges  and 


NORWAY  AND  SWEDEN  189 

rights  to  dispense  intoxicants  were  far  less  formida- 
ble. For  this  and  other  reasons  legislation  in  Nor- 
way has  progressed  more  rapidly  and  made  it  pos- 
sible for  the  company  system  to  develop  at  its  best. 
Throughout  its  history  the  temperance  party  has 
given  support  to  the  samlags  and  been  instrumental 
in  promoting  legislation  in  regard  to  it.  The  ex- 
tremists, of  course,  have  always  been  in  opposition, 
yet  the  consensus  of  opinion  is  that  the  samlag  sys- 
tem has  been  the  chief  means  of  temperance  reform. 
One  of  the  most  knotty  problems  has  been  the  dis- 
tribution of  the  profits  accruing  from  the  sale  of 
spirits.  The  early  method  of  devoting  a  portion  to 
the  reduction  of  the  tax  rate  was  found  inherently 
objectionable,  as  it  carried  a  temptation  to  extend 
instead  of  restricting  sales.  As  we  shall  see  later, 
a  proper  solution  has  been  found  and  no  criticism  is 
raised  against  the  Norwegian  system  on  the  score 
of  improper  use  of  the  profits. 

Perhaps  extravagant  friends  of  the  Scandinavian 
system  have  overpraised  it ;  they  have  at  least  rea- 
son on  their  side,  which  is  wanting  in  the  bitter  at- 
tacks upon  it  by  the  uncompromising  prohibition- 
ists. For  in  its  home  lands  the  system  has  demon- 
strated that  it  (1)  divorces  drink-selling  from  poli- 
tics and  thus  removes  this  obstacle  to  reform;  (2) 
places  an  "  inherently  dangerous  traffic  "  under  ef- 
fective restriction  and  control,  but  in  keeping  with 
the  expressed  sentiment  of  the  locality;  (3)  makes 
possible   the    reduction    of  the   number   of   licensed 


190      EEFORM  IN  FOREIGN  COUNTRIES 

houses  to  the  lowest  safe  limits  that  public  opinion 
will  tolerate,  and  thus  simplifies  all  restrictive  meas- 
ures; (4)  secures  the  profits  on  sales  to  the  locality 
and  enables  the  establishment  of  counter  attrac- 
tions; (5)  appeals  to  an  enlightened  public  opinion, 
enlists  the  co-operation  of  good  citizens,  and  paves 
the  way  for  progressive  temperance  legislation. 

Let  us  see  how  these  generalizations  fit  the  evi- 
dence offered  by  the  history  of  the  company  system 
in  Norway.  The  complete  divorce  of  the  samlags 
from  politics  hardly  needs  mention,  for  they  are 
managed  by  reputable,  disinterested  citizens  pledged 
to  conduct  sales  with  an  eye  to  the  public  good, 
who  have  no  interest  in  pushing  sales,  as  their  only 
profit  is  a  modest  interest  on  the  capital  invested, 
which  is  fixed  by  law.  Merely  the  elimination  of  pri- 
vate profits  from  the  business  precludes  any  mix- 
ing with  politics. 

From  the  very  beginning  it  has  been  the  con- 
sistent policy  of  the  samlags  to  hedge  about  the 
sale  of  spirits  with  increasingly  severe  restrictions. 
These  have  taken  the  form  especially  of  drastic  lim- 
itations of  the  hours  of  sale,  numerous  precautions 
in  serving  spirits,  and  a  persistent  effort  to  reduce 
the  number  of  sales-places  so  far  as  is  compatible 
with  the  evident  needs  of  the  community.  In  as- 
suming the  monopoly  of  licenses  to  sell  spirits  the 
samlags  at  once  effected  an  enormous  reduction  of 
licensed  places  and  have  continued  it  consistently. 
In  1904  the  law  became  operative  which  gives  the 


NORWAY  AND  SWEDEN  191 

different  communes  power  to  decide  for  themselves 
whether  the  sale  of  spirits  shall  be  continued  or  not. 
The  charge  that  the  system  tends  to  perpetuate  the 
sale  of  spirits  is  thus  entirely  unfounded. 

Instead  of  allowing  the  profits  from  the  sale  of 
alcohol  to  flow  into  the  pockets  of  private  indi- 
viduals, the  law  regulating  the  samlag  system  pro- 
vides that  of  the  net  profits  fifteen  per  cent  shall 
be  given  to  the  municipality  in  lieu  of  the  former 
license  tax,  and  twenty  per  cent  divided  among  the 
company  and  the  department  under  which  it  sorts, 
to  be  distributed  for  charitable  and  useful  objects 
not  supported  by  taxation,  while  the  remainder  is 
paid  into  the  State  treasury. 

That  the  maintenance  of  the  samlag  or  company 
system  does  not  stand  in  the  way  of  progressive  tem- 
perance legislation  is  witnessed  by  the  mere  fact  of  the 
reduction  in  licenses  that  has  taken  place  under  it. 
In  1896  there  were  51  municipalities  maintaining 
companies  for  the  retail  sale  of  spirits.  In  1913  there 
were  but  27  out  of  a  total  of  62  municipalities,  and 
in  1914  but  12  (to  some  extent  a  result  of  the  war), 
exclusive  of  two  places  in  which  the  courts  are  called 
upon  to  decide  the  legality  of  the  vote  for  the  pro- 
hibition of  spirits.  Under  the  law  of  1904  local  pro- 
hibition when  accepted  by  a  state  remains  in  force  for 
six  years.  Since  the  private  companies  monopolize 
the  sale  of  spirits  in  the  cities,  it  will  be  seen  that  a 
very  large  reduction  in  the  business  has  taken  place 
within  a  few  years.    There  remain,  to  be  sure,  some 


192      REFORM  IN  FOREIGN  COUNTRIES 

old  privileges  to  sell  spirits.  In  1914  there  was  a 
total  of  seven  in  the  country,  but  only  three  of  these 
were  actively  in  use. 

No  license  whatsoever  is  issued  for  the  sale  of 
spirits  in  the  country  districts  and  of  the  former 
licenses  there  remain  only  two. 

The  number  of  persons  permitted  to  sell  and 
serve  beer  and  wine  has  been  reduced  from  1,722  to 
888,  that  is,  about  half,  during  the  years  1900  to 
1911.  The  persons  in  the  rural  districts  who  had 
the  right  to  sell  beer  and  wine  numbered  only  206  in 
1900,  and  in  1911  had  been  reduced  to  134.  Fur- 
thermore, in  1914  there  were  19  of  the  62  cities  and 
500  of  the  612  rural  communes  in  which  no  license 
for  the  sale  of  liquors  of  any  kind  had  been 
issued. 

In  the  municipalities,  the  total  number  of  general 
licenses  was  reduced  during  the  years  1896  to  1914, 
from  466  to  269,  and  limited  licenses  to  serve  ordi- 
nary beer  and  wine  from  243  to  194.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  limited  licenses  to  serve  only  the  lightest 
beer  (that  is,  beer  containing  less  than  2.25  per  cent 
alcohol  and  exempt  from  taxation),  increased  from 
10  to  173.  These  facts  suffice  to  refute  the  allegation 
that  the  company  system  serves  to  perpetuate  liquor 
selling  in  general. 

The  grievance  has  frequently  been  directed  against 
the  company  system  in  Norway  that  it  does  not  neces- 
sarily include  a  monopolization  of  the  sale  of  wine 
and  beer.     Provisions   exist,  however,  under  which 


NORWAY  AND  SWEDEN  193 

a  company  may  acquire  the  right  to  retail  sale 
of  beer  for  a  definite  period  during  which  no  other 
vender  in  the  place  may  be  licensed. 

Many  well-informed  people  regard  it  as  making 
not  for,  but  against,  sobriety  to  place  the  retail 
sale  of  fermented  beverages  quite  on  the  same  foot- 
ing with  that  of  spirits.  Recent  legislation  has  lib- 
eralized the  sale  of  the  least  alcoholic  beers  through 
a  system  of  progressive  taxation  whereby  the  light- 
est beverages  of  this  kind  are  subjected  to  the  lowest 
tax.  Beers  containing  less  than  2.25  per  cent  of 
alcohol  are  free  from  taxation,  which,  as  in  other 
countries  where  it  has  been  tried,  serves  greatly  to 
stimulate  the  use  of  this  harmless  drink. 

Under  the  samlag  system  the  consumption  of 
spirits  (whiskey  of  fifty  per  cent  alcohol)  has  been 
reduced  about  one-half.  In  1876  the  consumption 
of  spirits  stood  at  6.66  liters  per  inhabitant  as 
against  3.64  in  1913.  The  fear  so  frequently  ex- 
pressed that  the  gradual  repression  of  spirits  would 
result  in  an  inordinate  consumption  of  beer  has  not 
been  realized.  The  quantity  of  beer  consumed  per 
inhabitant  in  1913  (21.1  liters)  was  almost  precisely 
the  same  in  1876;  while  during  the  decade  1891 
to  1900  the  consumption  of  beer  averaged  consider- 
ably higher  than  during  the  decade  from  1904  to 
1913.  According  to  the  total  consumption  of  alco- 
holic drinks  measured  in  terms  of  pure  alcohol,  Nor- 
way ranks  as  the  most  temperate  country  in  Europe 
except  Finland,  whose  consumption  of  spirits,  how- 


194      REFORM  IN  FOREIGN  COUNTRIES 

ever,  is  not  much  below  that  of  Norway.^  That  these 
unmatched  results  could  have  been  attained  in  Nor- 
way under  any  ordinary  license  system  is  not 
credible.  Prohibitionists  from  other  lands  have 
wasted  much  effort  in  seeking  to  discredit  the  Nor- 
wegian samlag  system  and  have  been  seconded  to 
some  extent  by  outside  representatives  of  the 
"  trade."  The  truth  is  that  the  system  has  gained 
support  from  the  abstainers  precisely  because  it 
makes  temperance  reform  easy.  In  1916,  after  a 
labor  of  four  and  a  half  years,  the  Norwegian  Alco- 
hol Commission,  an  official  body  under  the  chairman- 
ship of  Professor  Dr.  Axel  Hoist,  and,  almost  need- 
less to  say,  consisting  of  men  of  high  scientific  attain- 
ments and  standing  issued  its  report,  which  will  be 
laid  before  the  next  Storting.  A  minority  consisting 
of  avowed  prohibitionists,  one  of  whom  is  the  well- 
known  temperance  leader.  Provincial  Governor  S. 
Aarrestad,  does  not  favor  the  abolition  of  the  com- 
pany system,  but  would  restrict  it  in  several  ways, 
while  hoping  eventually  to  win  the  whole  country  for 
prohibition  by  the  extension  of  local  option. 

After  most  exhaustive  investigations  the  majority 
of  this  commission  find  that  prohibition  is  likely  to 
increase  home  distillation  and  greatly  to  stimulate 
the  illicit  traffic.  They  base  this  judgment  in  part 
upon  the  experience  with  local  prohibition,  which 
shows  the  number  of  persons  sentenced  or  under 
prosecution  for  illegal  selling  to  be  three  and  a  half 
*  See  Appendix. 


NORWAY  AND  SWEDEN  195 

times  larger  in  cities  without  samlags  (under  pro- 
hibition) than  in  the  others.  The  evidence  of  public 
intoxication  is  taken  to  indicate  "  so  intense  a 
craving  for  stimulants  among  the  male  population 
of  our  cities  that  it  cannot  be  expected  in  the  near 
future  to  cease  obtaining  gratification  solely  through 
the  adoption  of  a  prohibitive  law."  The  police  au- 
thorities of  the  principal  cities  are  reported  as  prac- 
tically unanimous  in  the  belief  that  total  prohibition 
cannot  be  enforced.  The  same  opinion  is  voiced  by 
the  state  revenue  department.  The  police  officials  of 
Christiania  say,  "  Already  now  it  is  most  difficult  to 
secure  evidence  in  cases  of  violations  of  the  alcohol 
law,"  and — it  has  such  a  familiar  sound ! — that  in 
different  strata  of  the  population  it  is  considered 
quite  proper  to  give  untruthful  explanations  and  try 
to  deceive  the  police  and  the  courts  in  liquor  cases. 
Personal  investigation  in  the  United  States  has  per- 
suaded members  of  the  Norwegian  commission  that 
our  examples  of  prohibition  ought  not  to  be  imitated. 
It  must  not  be  understood,  however,  that  the  Nor- 
wegian Alcohol  Commission  was  in  any  sense  oblivious 
to  the  social  damage  from  alcoholism,  or  that  it  ad- 
vocates letting  well  enough  alone.  It  endeavored  to 
view  the  situation  from  every  possible  angle,  and 
made  the  most  thorough  study  undertaken  in  any 
country  of  alcoholism  in  its  relation  to  various 
social  troubles.  The  entire  work  breathes  a  desire 
to  promote  temperance,  but  always  with  the  clear 
perception  of  the  dangers  attending  legislation  for 


196      REFORM  IN  FOREIGN  COUNTRIES 

which  the  public  is  not  yet  ripe.  The  most  impor- 
tant points  in  the  legislation  recommended  by  the 
majority  of  the  Norwegian  Alcohol  Commission  may 
be  summarized  as  follows : 

Distillers  and  rectifiers  must  confine  their  sale  of 
domestic  spirits  to  samlags.  Only  the  samlags  have 
the  right  to  import  spirits  from  abroad,  except  for 
technical,  medical,  and  scientific  purposes.  The  sale 
and  serving  of  spirits  are  confined  to  the  towns  and 
may  only  be  undertaken  by  samlags. 

Before  a  samlag  can  be  established  within  a  com- 
mune, all  voters  (women  as  well  as  men  over  25 
years  of  age)  decide  by  ballot  whether  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  samlag  (or  its  continuance)  shall  find 
place.  The  outcome  of  the  election  remains  valid 
for  six  years.  The  regulations  governing  the  ac- 
tivities of  a  samlag  must  be  approved  by  the  city 
council  and  confirmed  by  the  general  government, 
after  the  opinion  of  the  "  Sobriety  Commission  "  has 
been  heard.  (  The  creation  of  such  a  commission  is 
recommended,  to  consist  of  five  members  to  be  ap- 
pointed by  the  King  for  a  period  of  three  years ;  its 
duty  shall  be  to  have  supervision  of  the  business  of 
the  spirit  samlags  and  to  be  concerned  with  alcohol 
legislation  generally.)  The  chairman  of  a  samlag 
is  nominated  by  this  commission,  and  of  the  remain- 
ing members  one-half  are  to  be  elected  by  the  city 
authorities  and  one-half  by  the  samlag  members.  The 
number  of  places  for  retail  sale  and  serving  of  spirits 
is  to  be  determined  by  the  city  government.     The 


NORWAY  AND  SWEDEN  197 

shareholders  in  a  samlag  are  restricted  to  an  interest 
of  five  per  cent  on  the  capital  invested.  In  the  coun- 
try districts  the  serving  of  spirits  can  only  take  place 
under  special  license  on  the  recommendation  of  the 
local  government  authorities  and  is  restricted  to 
hotels  and  restaurants  at  health  resorts  which  may 
not  serve  others  than  tourists  and  guests.  Such  spe- 
cial licenses  may  be  for  a  part  of  the  season.  (One 
reason  for  this  exemption  is  to  stop  illicit  selling.) 

"  The  activities  of  a  samlag  must  be  so  ordered 
that  the  least  possible  harm  is  done  by  the  sale  and 
serving  of  spirits,  and  that  temperance  be  promoted 
in  the  best  possible  manner.  For  this  purpose  the 
company  shall  try  to  prevent  the  sale  of  spirits  to 
any  one  of  whom  it  may  reasonably  be  assumed  that 
he  will  abuse  it  or  help  others  to  abuse  it,  nor  shall 
spirits  be  sold  in  such  quantity  that  supposedly  it  is 
intended  for  abuse.'*  Among  other  restrictions  may 
be  noted  that  no  sale  of  spirits  may  take  place  be- 
tween the  hours  of  6  p.m.  and  10  a.m.  and  not  after 
1  P.M.  on  the  day  previous  to  Sundays  and  holidays, 
nor  on  these  days.  No  serving  of  spirits  may  take 
place  between  seven  o'clock  p.m.  and  ten  o'clock  a.m. 

For  serving  beer,  wine,  fruit  wine,  and  mead,  a 
license  is  required,  except  that  to  serve  beer  contain- 
ing less  than  2.25  volume  per  cent  of  alcohol  does 
not  require  a  license  but  merely  the  approval  of  the 
police.  In  country  districts  the  licenses  in  ques- 
tion are  granted  by  the  local  government  board  and 
in  towns  by  the  city  government.     In  selecting  li- 


198      REFORM  IN  FOREIGN  COUNTRIES 

censees  the  most  important  consideration  shall  be 
that  they  are  not  likely  to  abuse  the  privilege.  A 
license  to  serve  the  fermented  beverages  under  con- 
sideration may  be  granted  a  samlag  for  a  period  of 
not  exceeding  six  years  at  one  time,  provided  its  by- 
laws are  approved  by  the  local  authorities  and  con- 
firmed by  the  general  government.  At  the  same 
time  it  may  be  determined  that  a  general  license  to 
serve  fermented  drinks  may  not  be  awarded  to  any 
one  else.  The  general  provisions  governing  the  ac- 
tivities of  a  samlag  are  applicable  in  such  a  case. 
The  maximum  regular  license  fee  for  serving  fer- 
mented drinks  is  600  kroner  in  rural  districts  and 
1,200  kroner  in  the  towns.  Special  regulations 
govern  the  sale  of  fermented  drinks  for  consumption 
off  the  premises.  This  is  subject  to  license,  except 
the  wholesale  trade. 

In  regard  to  the  distribution  of  eventual  profits 
from  the  business  of  a  samlag,  the  proposed  law  pro- 
vides that  in  the  first  year  after  it  becomes  opera- 
tive twelve  per  cent  of  the  net  profits  are  to  be  paid 
to  the  respective  communes,  eight  per  cent  to  the  sam- 
lag, and  seven  per  cent  to  the  government  for  dis- 
tribution among  the  diflPerent  districts  of  the  province 
in  proportion  to  population.  In  the  second  year 
after  the  law  goes  into  effect  the  above-mentioned 
percentages  are  fixed  at  nine,  six,  and  four  per 
cent;  for  the  third  year  at  six,  four,  and  three  per 
cent.  For  the  fourth  year  three  per  cent  accrues 
to  the  commune  of  the  samlag  and  two  per  cent  to 


NORWAY  AND  SWEDEN  199 

the  samlag  itself.  The  moneys  due  to  the  samlag  and 
the  communes  of  the  province  are  to  be  used  for 
objects  of  public  utility  and  charity  which  the  com- 
munes are  not  obligated  by  law  to  provide  for.  Of 
the  moneys  paid  into  the  State  treasury  an  amount 
corresponding  to  sixty-five  per  cent  of  the  net  profits 
is  until  1920  to  be  added  to  the  fund  for  sickness 
and  old-age  insurance.  The  remainder  is  to  consti- 
tute a  so-called  sobriety  fund  which  is  to  take  care 
of  the  expenses  incurred  by  the  Sobriety  Council  and 
in  the  expropriation  of  older  selling  privileges  and 
for  other  purposes  designed  to  counteract  drunken- 
ness and  to  compensate  for  the  loss  of  State  revenue 
which   results   from   it. 

The  commission  mentions  at  length  and  favorably 
the  so-called  Bratt  or  Andree  system  of  individual 
licensing  control  which  originated  in  Sweden  and 
aims  to  prevent  persons  from  buying  spirits  who  are 
known  to  abuse  it.  But  evidently  the  commission 
is  not  ready  to  incorporate  the  system  into  law,  pre- 
ferring first  to  subject  it  to  experiment. 

For  many  years  the  central  object  of  liquor  legis- 
lation in  Sweden  has  been  to  prevent  the  abuse  of 
spirits.  The  introduction  of  the  company  system 
and  its  progressive  monopolization  of  the  retail  sale 
(including  the  serving)  of  spirits  represent  salutary 
changes.  It  is  enough  to  say  that  the  consumption 
of  spirits  which  in  the  five-year  period  1871  to  1875 
stood  at  11.8  liters  had  been  reduced  to  6.8  liters  in 
the  period  1906  to  1910.     Simultaneously,  the  con- 


£00      REFORM  IN  FOREIGN  COUNTRIES 

sumption  of  beer  has  greatly  increased.  Yet  the  per 
capita  use  of  all  alcoholic  beverages  put  into  terms 
of  pure  alcohol  had  been  reduced  during  the  period 
in  question  from  6.8  to  4.9  liters  per  inhabitant. 
The  enormous  growth  in  the  use  of  tax-free  malt 
drinks  (containing  not  more  than  2^  volume  per 
cent  of  alcohol)  is  especially  noteworthy. 

The  Swedish  Temperance  Committee,  an  official 
body,  has  recently  proposed  new  legislation  govern- 
ing the  sale  of  alcoholic  drinks  which  aims  to  do 
away  with  some  of  the  obstacles  to  reform  which 
have  stood  in  the  way  of  the  desired  development  of 
the  company  system.  Outside  of  the  companies,  a 
large  business  has  been  carried  on  in  intoxicants 
without  the  necessity  of  a  special  license.  Thus  ex- 
empted from  license  has  been  wholesale  traffic  in 
spirits  (in  quantities  of  250  liters  and  above);  the 
importation  of  spirits,  wine,  and  beer  has  been  ab- 
solutely free;  agents  for  foreign  firms  have  been  un- 
restricted in  seeking  orders ;  the  purchasers  of  beer 
and  wine  have  had  the  right  to  sell  at  retail;  in 
addition,  a  few  personal  privileges  to  sell  spirits  have 
not  been  expropriated  and  in  the  rural  districts 
many  tavern  keepers  have  the  right  to  sell  beer  with- 
out a  license. 

The  new  legislation  proposed  by  the  temperance 
committee  gives  expression  to  the  following  prin- 
ciples: (1)  No  private  individual  can  obtain  a  license 
to  sell  intoxicants  of  any  kind  at  retail.  The  right 
to  serve  may  be  awarded  a  private  individual  but 


NORWAY  AND  SWEDEN  201 

only  through  the  bolag,  which  is  gradually  to  ex- 
propriate the  still  remaining  private  privileges. 
(2)  There  shall  be  no  private  wine  or  spirit  mer- 
chants and  no  private  sale  of  beer.  (3)  The  bolag, 
or  company,  is  thus  assumed  to  be  the  only  medium 
of  sale  monopolizing  the  whole  retail  traffic  and  all 
places  where  drink  is  served  are  obligated  to  buy 
goods  from  the  bolag.  (4)  The  business  of  the 
bolag  is  to  be  so  arranged  that  it  knows  to  whom  it 
sells  and  how  much  it  sells.  The  last  point  refers  to 
the  so-called  Bratt  or  Andree  system  mentioned 
above.  This  system  has  been  in  practice  in  Gothen- 
berg  since  1912  and  in  Stockholm  since  1914,  and 
will  soon  be  introduced  in  numerous  other  Swedish 
cities.  By  a  law  of  May,  1915,  it  became  mandatory 
for  the  whole  of  Sweden  so  far  as  all  retail  sale  of 
spirits  is  concerned.  The  system  is  one  of  indi- 
vidual control  or  licensing.  Before  it  can  become 
operative  the  managers  of  the  companies  having  a 
monopoly  of  the  sale  of  spirits  obtain  information 
from  the  police,  courts,  guardians  for  the  poor,  and 
others  concerning  persons  who  on  account  of  their 
alcoholic  habits  should  not  be  allowed  to  buy  whiskey. 
All  other  persons  over  twenty-one  years  of  age  may 
purchase,  but  only  in  limited  quantities  during  a 
stated  period.  In  Stockholm  the  maximum  quan- 
tity which  may  be  bought  is  one  liter  of  spirits  every 
fifth  day ;  and  in  Gothenberg  eight  liters  per  month. 
The  reason  given  for  keeping  the  limit  at  a  figure 
which  some  may  regard  as  high  is  the  desire  not  to 


20^      REFORM  IN  FOREIGN  COUNTRIES 

drive  people  to  resort  to  substitutes  for  alcohol  and 
the  general  belief  that  it  is  necessary  to  proceed 
slowly  with  so  radical  an  innovation. 

Although  the  maximum  quantity  is  so  large  and  in 
spite  of  the  fact  that  it  has  hitherto  been  possible 
to  import  spirits  without  the  consent  of  the  bolag, 
this  individual  license  system  has  proved  a  very  ef- 
fective adjunct  in  promoting  temperance.  It  is  said 
that  since  the  introduction  of  the  Bratt  system  in 
Stockholm,  arrests  for  drunkenness  decreased  about 
one-third,  after  the  system  had  existed  but  a  year 
and  a  half,  and  it  is  still  in  the  experimental  stage. 
In  Gothenberg  arrests  for  drunkenness  have  de- 
creased only  fifteen  per  cent  since  the  Andree  sys- 
tem came  into  force.  The  police  insist,  however,  that 
the  showing  is  really  better  than  indicated  because 
the  places  for  detaining  drunken  persons  have  not 
been  so  crowded  as  previously,  so  that  really  a  large 
number  of  intoxicated  persons  are  placed  under  ar- 
rest who  formerly  were  let  go  for  lack  of  some 
place  in  which  to  keep  them. 

In  Stockholm  every  would-be  purchaser  of  spirits 
receives  a  pass-book  in  which  the  quantity  of  each 
purchase  is  noted.  In  Gothenberg  certificates  are 
distributed  which  must  be  presented  by  the  purchaser 
or  his  representative,  and  the  quantity  bought  is 
entered  at  the  place  of  purchase.  Each  buyer  is  re- 
stricted to  a  certain  sales  place  which  he  must  patron- 
ize. A  new  law  prescribes  that  no  one  may  import 
spirits  from  abroad  except  with  the  consent  of  the 


NORWAY  AND  SWEDEN  203 

company,  which  will  make  the  practice  of  individual 
control  much  easier. 

Although  very  great  caution  was  exercised  in  pre- 
paring a  "  black  list "  of  persons  excluded  from  the 
privilege  of  buying  spirits  in  any  quantity,  the 
Gothenberg  list  for  October-,  1912,  contained  over 
2,000  names,  and  a  year  later  more  than  1,000  others 
were  added.  In  Stockholm  10,000  applications  for 
pass-books  according  the  privilege  of  buying  whis- 
key from  the  bolag  were  refused.  To  this  must,  of 
course,  be  added  a  large  number  of  persons  who  did 
not  make  any  application  because  they  were  sure  to 
be  denied  it.  Their  number  is  estimated  at  from 
6,000  to  10,000.  There  has  been  discussion  of  ex- 
tending the  individual  license  to  cover  also  fermented 
drinks,  but  at  present  this  is  neither  feasible  nor  de- 
sirable. 

The  great  innovation  in  the  recommendations  of 
the  Swedish  Temperance  Committee  is  the  proposal 
to  introduce  local  option  or  the  right  to  decide  by 
popular  vote  against  the  licensing  of  every  kind  of 
spirituous  drink.  While  in  Norway  the  local  veto  in 
its  direct  form  provides  for  popular  election  in  re- 
gard to  the  sale  of  spirits  by  the  companies  and  the 
sale  of  other  alcoholic  beverages  can  only  be  abol- 
ished indirectly  through  the  action  of  the  local  au- 
thorities, Sweden  would  make  no  exception  but  would 
make  all  drink-selling  subject  to  option.  The  Com- 
mittee was  not  quite  in  agreement  on  essential  points. 
A  majority  would  require  a  two-thirds  majority  for 


204      REFORM  IN  FOREIGN  COUNTRIES 

the  introduction  of  local  prohibition  and  a  like  ma- 
jority in  order  to  rescind  it,  and  the  initiative  for  a 
new  election  would  have  to  be  taken  by  those  who  are 
opposed  to  prohibition.  Two  members  of  the  com- 
mittee would  make  local  option  law  effective  for  five 
years,  after  which  a  new  election  would  be  obligatory, 
and  would  require  two-thirds  of  the  majority  of  the 
electors  of  the  commune  for  the  continuation  of  local 
prohibition. 

Aside  from  things  actually  accomplished  in  the 
way  of  effective  legislation,  the  American  observer 
of  European  methods  can  but  note  (with  a  degree 
of  humiliation)  that  they  do  not  leave  the  intricate 
problems  associated  with  liquor  laws  to  the  mercy  of 
the  propagandist  and  the  inexperienced  or  interested 
legislator.  Europeans  attempt  at  least  to  clear  the 
way  through  scientific  inquiries  by  men  of  eminence 
and  authority.  Our  progress  in  drink  reform  is 
bound  to  be  slow  so  long  as  popular  wisdom  about  it 
is  drawn  from  the  politician  on  the  stump,  or  from 
unscientific  temperance  federations. 

But  in  Europe,  too,  the  liquor  issue  is  beginning 
to  be  used  by  the  politician  as  a  ladder  wherewith 
to  reach  place.  And  once  he  takes  up  the  yoke  of 
temperance  servitude,  there  is  apparently  no  escape. 
There  is  a  curious  fatalism  about  swearing  allegi- 
ance to  the  tenets  of  prohibition:  it  seems  almost 
invariably  to  produce  a  deviation  from  normal 
thought  and  ideals.  Are  they  fit  to  lead  who  regard 
the  liquor  problem  as  the  one  vital  question,  who 


NORWAY  AND  SWEDEN  205 

aver  that  the  sum  and  substance  of  human  ills  are 
bound  up  in  it,  and  therefore  demand,  even  in  the 
midst  of  a  world-conflagration,  that  it  must  be  given 
the  right  of  way  over  all  the  problems  that  perplex 
society  ? 


CHAPTER  V 
CONSTRUCTIVE  TEMPERANCE  REFORM 

I 

EVOLUTION  OF  THE  SALOON 

The  cupidity  of  liquor-dealers,  the  stupidity  of 
legislation,  and  the  misdirected  zeal  of  reformers  are 
responsible  for  the  American  saloon.  Its  evolution 
from  the  old-time  tavern  or  inn  in  which  drink- 
selling  was  an  incidental  if  important  function,  to 
an  institution  having  no  other  reason  for  being, 
was  swift.  In  the  days  when  the  Atlantic  border 
marked  the  frontier,  and  until  post-colonial  times, 
neither  the  law-making  nor  the  law-enforcing  power 
seemed  to  be  greatly  disturbed  over  excesses  by  the 
innkeepers,  who  were,  so  to  speak,  the  community 
hosts  at  the  few  places  of  public  refreshment.  The  local 
ordinances  governing  drink-selling  were  very  simple 
and  intended  as  a  check  upon  disorderly  conduct 
generally  rather  than  upon  the  individual's  consump- 
tion of  drink.  The  imposition  of  any  other  penalty 
than  a  moderate  fine  was  seldom  thought  necessary. 
No  doubt  there  was  room  for  complaint,  but  the  inn- 
keepers of  that  period  were  rarely  local  freebooters 
even  in  regard  to  illicit  traffic  in  rum  with  the  Indians. 

208 


EVOLUTION  OF  THE  SALOON  207 

Liquor-selling  was  very  far  from  being  regarded  as 
an  inherently  disreputable  occupation,  much  less  the 
manufacture  and  importation  of  rum,  which  played 
so  large  a  part  in  the  early  commerce. 

The  first  great  outcry  against  the  drink  evil  which 
arose  in  the  early  part  of  the  last  century  did  not 
expend  its  force  in  denouncing  the  sellers  of  intoxi- 
cants. As  strong  drink  at  that  time  was  an  article 
of  pernicious  daily  household  use,  both  on  glad  and 
sad  occasions,  the  problem  as  then  viewed  was  one 
of  influencing  personal  habits  rather  than  of  repress- 
ing the  drink-seller.  The  driving  force  of  the  primi- 
tive temperance  movement  was  a  semi-religious  en- 
thusiasm for  abstinence  which  could  not  indefinitely 
be  maintained  at  fever  heat.  Gradually  it  began  to 
cool,  but  the  drink-selling  institution  remained,  and 
before  long  it  became  the  object  of  reform.  This 
shift  in  the  point  of  attack  (one  may  date  it  from 
the  early  thirties  of  the  last  century)  gave  a  direc- 
tion to  temperance  activities  that  not  only  has  per- 
sisted but  has  become  more  and  more  accentuated 
in  the  course  of  time.  Some  of  the  unlovely  traits 
commonly  associated  with  drink-selling  (other  than 
that  of  intoxication)  had  surely  cropped  out;  they 
became  full-blown,  however,  only  after  the  saloon  had 
been  declared  a  social  outlaw.  Far-sighted  men 
among  the  early  temperance  advocates  clearly  saw 
the  danger  of  staking  the  future  of  reform  on  a  re- 
pression of  the  drink-seller  to  the  neglect  of  improv- 
ing social  customs  and  personal  habits.    For  a  time 


208  TEMPERANCE  REFORM 

there  was  a  strong  minority  party  among  the  re- 
formers having  "  moral  suasion  "  as  its  watchword ; 
but  the  prohibition  idea  gradually  superseded  it. 
This  was  a  perfectly  natural  evolution  of  the  move- 
ment. To  fight  for  a  moral  abstraction  is  much  less 
appealing  to  the  ordinary  mind  than  to  single  out  a 
concrete  object  for  scorn  and  condemnation.  To- 
day the  temperance  propaganda  abounds  much  more 
in  rage  against  the  saloons  than  in  solicitude  for 
personal  hygiene  and  abstinence  as  a  virtue.  This 
one-sided  and  purely  repressive  character  of  drink 
reform  needs  to  be  emphasized  because  it  helps  to 
explain  the  development  of  the  American  saloon. 

It  is  fallacious  to  regard  the  saloon  as  a  peculiar 
outgrowth  of  rough  pioneer  life,  with  its  self-made 
code  and  ready  forgiveness  of  debauchery.  For 
quite  obvious  reasons  drink-selling  appears  at  its 
worst  under  conditions  which  attract  the  adven- 
turous and  lawless  elements  chiefly  bent  on  gain 
who  lack  the  softening  influences  of  the  well-ordered 
community  accustomed  to  all  manner  of  restraint. 
The  most  recent  illustration  of  this  comes  to  us  from 
the  settlement  of  Alaska.  Perhaps  the  American 
tavern  had  deviated  from  its  English  prototype,  but 
the  real  departure  began  when  its  extinction  was  de- 
clared to  be  the  ultimate  goal  of  reform.  The  fron- 
tier had  not  pushed  far  beyond  the  Alleghenies  be- 
fore the  drink-seller  was  forced  into  a  fight  for  legal 
existence  which  since  has  been  incessantly  waged  in 
different  parts  of  the  country.     He  entered  it  pri- 


EVOLUTION  OF  THE  SALOON  209 

marily  for  defense;  soon,  however,  he  found  it  ad- 
vantageous to  attack,  and  thereby  hangs  the  long 
unclean  story  of  the  saloon  in  politics  over  which 
good  men  so  often  have  moralized.  As  drink-selling 
privileges  were  apportioned  and  supervised  by  local 
authorities,  it  was  inevitable  that  the  saloon-keeper 
should  seek  to  make  them  his  political  creatures ;  and 
having  obtained  safety,  he  next  tried  to  utilize  the 
position  for  gain  and  non-interference.  When  fate- 
ful threats  of  prohibition  impended,  the  saloon- 
keeper reached  out  into  the  wider  fields  of  politics. 
The  point  of  vantage  was  often  his,  for  the  saloon 
offered  a  natural  meeting-place  to  those  who  were 
troubled  about  local  political  destinies.  The  taste  of 
power  fed  the  cupidity  which  the  saloon-keeper 
shares  with  most  men. 

There  is,  however,  little  logic  in  the  reasoning  that 
it  is  reprehensible  per  se  for  the  liquor  interests  to 
promote  the  election  of  candidates  opposed  to  pro- 
hibition so  long  as  it  is  done  by  proper  means.  For 
under  license  both  manufacture  and  sale  of  intoxi- 
cants are  legally  sanctioned  and  are  a  traffic  to  which 
most  men  pay  tribute  and  from  which  they  derive  a 
certain  pecuniary  benefit  in  the  form  of  taxes.  To 
insist  upon  this  view  is,  of  course,  not  to  excuse  any 
high-handed  dictation  to  political  candidates,  much 
less  to  excuse  any  unlawful  interference  in  govern- 
mental affairs. 

The  domination  of  the  saloon  in  many  places,  its 
shameless  perversion  of  local  government,  its  open 


210  TEMPERANCE  REFORM 

defiance  of  law  and  the  rapacity  accompanying  it, 
are  ugly  chapters  in  our  civic  history;  but  let  it  be 
remembered  that  it  was  not  the  saloon  at  its  worst 
against  which  the  early  reformers  rose,  for  this  is  a 
growth  of  later  days ;  and  one  who  wishes  to  under- 
stand its  gradual  deterioration  must  carefully  in- 
quire how  far  this  resulted  from  the  environment 
created  for  it  by  legislation  and  reform  efforts. 
This  statement  involves  neither  an  apology  for  the 
lawlessness  and  political  chicanery  laid  to  the  saloon, 
nor  a  reflection  on  the  motives  of  reformers.  Of 
course,  in  many  instances,  a  callous  public  permitted 
the  inherently  dangerous  traffic  to  go  on  unfettered 
in  spite  of  legal  prescriptions,  and  with  the  usual  bad 
results.  But  the  large  view  to  be  kept  in  mind  is 
that  the  whole  trend  of  temperance  legislation  has 
been  repressive,  with  absolute  prohibition  as  the  final 
aim,  on  the  assumption  that  general  moderation 
throughout  the  land  cannot  be  attained  by  any  other 
means. 

One  searches  in  vain  the  whole  turgid  mass  of 
license  laws  in  this  country  for  leading  constructive 
principles  that  may  at  once  serve  to  curb  excess 
while  meeting  a  popular  demand  and  easily  lending 
themselves  to  progressive  restriction  as  soon  as  the 
public  is  prepared  for  it.  Instead,  the  statutes  bristle 
with  the  one  idea  of  repression,  and  behind  them 
lurks  the  one  accepted  alternative,  namely,  prohibi- 
tion. 

Yet  is  temperance  so  fragile  a  virtue  that  it  will 


LOCAL  OPTION  211 

not  thrive  unless  shielded  by  sumptuary  legislation? 
Such  is  the  working  hypothesis  of  its  strenuous  advo- 
cates. They  ignore  the  improvements  that  have 
taken  place,  not  in  consequence  of  repression  or 
force,  but  through  a  complexity  of  influences  that 
draw  a  community  up  to  the  higher  levels.  That  the 
trend  is  toward  moderation  and  that  the  alcoholic  ex- 
cesses of  the  forefathers  have  passed,  they  overlook. 
The  saloon  remains  and  typifies  to  them  the  one  su- 
preme evil  which  cannot  be  modified  or  progressively 
corrected.  They  conceive  of  alcohol  as  in  itself  a 
veritable  monster  that  cannot  be  exorcised  but  must 
be  destroyed.  Therefore,  they  heap  contumely  upon 
constructive  efforts  and  hold  out  the  strait-j  acket  as 
symbolizing  the  highest  form  of  appeal,  wholly  suited 
to  win  a  self-respecting  nation.  Failing  its  volun- 
tary or  compulsory  acceptance,  they  recognize  but 
one  principle  in  liquor  legislation,  that  of  repression. 
Herein  lies  the  reason  for  the  disappointments  of 
temperance  reform  as  exemplified  in  the  United 
States.  This  broad  assertion  requires  some  explana- 
tion in  detail  of  the  workings  of  our  legal  restrictions 
other  than  state-wide  prohibition. 

n 

LOCAL.   OPTION 

The  finest  fruit  garnered  from  a  multitude  of  ex- 
periments in  curbing  the  liquor  trafl^ic  is  the  right  of 
local  option,  but  we  have  stunted  its  growth  and 


212  TEMPERANCE  REFORM 

tried  to  plant  it  in  wrong  places.  If  the  principal 
of  local  option  is  not  an  original  discovery,  we  have 
patent-righted  it  and  furnished  examples  of  its 
proper  uses  as  well  as  of  its  abuses.  The  right  of 
the  local  community  to  decide  for  itself  whether  the 
sale  of  liquor  shall  be  licensed  or  not  is  no  longer 
in  dispute.  As  we  have  shown  elsewhere,  it  has  al- 
ready been  recognized  in  the  legislation  of  several 
lands,  for  instance,  Canada,  the  Australian  colonies, 
Norway,  and  Scotland,  and  in  the  near  future  will 
probably  be  included  in  the  Swedish  laws.  The  appli- 
cability of  this  right  however,  is  distinctly  limited.  In 
rural  districts  and  smaller  urban  communities,  local 
prohibition  can  be  made  a  success  and  has  vindicated 
itself  in  many  instances,  in  response  to  the  public 
sense  that  the  saloon  has  no  place  in  villages  and  at 
country  cross-roads,  because  it  does  not  meet  an  ir- 
repressible want.  The  utility  of  local  prohibition  in 
larger  urban  centers  is  generally  conditioned  by  their 
proximity  to  some  place  under  license  which  operates 
as  a  "  safety  valve  "  to  the  purchasers  of  intoxicants 
who  will  not  be  denied ;  and  upon  easy  access  to  drink 
very  often  depends  the  willingness  to  accept  local 
prohibition. 

But  where  repeated  trials  clearly  show  that  no  de- 
cided majority  exists  for  local  prohibition,  and  that 
there  is  a  constant  shift  from  it  to  license,  the  actual 
gain  for  temperance  is  infinitesimal.  The  laws  them- 
selves are  at  fault  because  they  permit  local  prohibi- 
tion to  ensue  from  a  mandate  of  a  majority,  no  mat- 


LOCAL  OPTION  213 

ter  how  small  it  is  and  how  unrepresentative  of  public 
sentiment. 

Conditions  roundabout  the  city  of  Boston  furnish 
the  most  instructive  illustration.  By  maintaining  li- 
cense this  city  of  725,000  population  provides  an 
outlet  for  adjacent  cities  and  towns,  the  most  impor- 
tant of  which  are  separated  merely  by  artificial 
boundary  lines,  and  contain  a  population  about  equal 
to  that  of  Boston.  The  inhabitants  of  these  places 
habitually  and  wisely  vote  to  exclude  drink-selling; 
but  they  could  scarcely  be  persuaded  to  follow  this 
policy  unless  Boston  provided  a  base  of  supplies  and 
served  as  an  outlet  for  the  saloon-going  part  of  the 
communities.  In  such  instances  the  no-license  vote 
does  not  by  any  means  signify  a  desire  for  the  enact- 
ment of  prohibition.  Examples  of  similar  kind  are 
found  in  other  parts  of  the  country,  for  instance,  in 
the  vicinity  of  the  city  of  Chicago.  In  prohibition 
states,  too,  it  happens  that  people  are  content  to 
keep  the  saloons  from  their  own  streets  so  long  as 
they  need  but  cross  a  bridge  to  reach  them  in  another 
state  or  perhaps  in  their  own.  A  classical  example 
of  the  last-mentioned  condition  is  found  in  Maine 
where  the  city  of  Auburn  insists  upon  the  enforce- 
ment of  prohibition  while  the  city  of  Lewiston  on 
the  other  side  of  the  river  permits  drink-selling  openly 
except  for  an  occasional  period  of  enforcement. 

Local  prohibition  has  been  reasonably  well  ob- 
served in  numerous  communities  and  benefited  some 
of  them  greatly.     This  does  not  mean  that  the  use 


214'  TEMPERANCE  REFORM 

of  intoxicants  has  ceased  in  such  instances,  but  that 
the  consumption  in  the  homes  has  largely  replaced 
saloon  drinking.  Occasionally  a  no-license  victory  is 
gained  in  a  large  city,  but  so  far  there  probably  has 
not  been  a  single  example  showing  that  in  such  a 
case  local  prohibition  has  been  successfully  enforced 
or  maintained  for  any  length  of  time,  unless,  of 
course,  such  a  city  has  been  adjacent  to  another  city 
under  license. 

That  it  is  easy,  artificially,  to  propagate  votes  in 
the  name  of  morality  is  as  common  an  experience  as 
it  is  disheartening.  If  the  adoption  of  this  or  that 
policy  did  not  derive  its  value  from  the  force  of  con- 
viction back  of  it,  the  situation  would  be  different. 
But  in  local-option  elections,  as  in  prohibition  elec- 
tions, we  cling  to  the  demonstrable  fallacy  that  a 
mere  majority,  no  matter  how  obtained,  is  enough 
to  secure  a  stable  policy  in  dealing  with  the  liquor 
question.  It  is  not  even  thought  necessary  that  the 
vote  cast  in  such  elections  should  constitute  a  stated 
proportion  of  the  total  electorate.  Thus  it  may  hap- 
pen that  on  a  given  question  only  a  fraction  of  the 
electorate  expresses  its  opinion.  The  result,  how- 
ever, is  as  binding  as  if  the  last  man  had  turned  out 
at  the  polls.  Of  course  the  more  rudimentary  the 
legal  requirements  are  to  make  the  outcome  of  an 
election  valid,  the  easier  it  becomes  to  force  prohibi- 
tion upon  an  unwilling  community.  Other  countries 
have  recognized  this  weakness  in  our  local-option 
legislation  and  have  sought  to  remedy  it  in  their  own. 


LOCAL  OPTION  215 

Most  of  the  Australian  colonies,  for  instance,  require 
a  three-fifths  majority  for  or  against  license  and  re- 
quire that  from  35  to  50  per  cent  of  the  qualified 
electors  must  vote  on  the  question.  The  new  Scottish 
law  which  becomes  operative  a  few  years  hence,  con- 
tains similar  provisions ;  and  in  discussion  of  the  local 
veto,  as  it  is  commonly  called  abroad,  the  official 
Swedish  Temperance  Committee  expressed  a  prefer- 
ence for  a  two-thirds  majority  in  order  to  carry  an 
election  for  local  prohibition. 

In  some  states  local-option  elections  occur  annu- 
ally, on  the  ground  that  they  serve  to  keep  alive  the 
temperance  interests.  The  grave  circumstance  that 
neither  one  policy  nor  the  other  can  get  a  fair  trial 
in  the  course  of  one  year,  and  that  the  opportunity 
for  frequent  changes  serves  to  perpetuate  an  ele- 
ment ready  to  embark  in  the  liquor  traffic  by  legal 
means  when  possible,  or  to  some  extent  by  illegal 
means  during  dry  periods,  is  ignored. 

Some  states  provide  for  biennial  local-option  elec- 
tions, but  even  this  scarcely  affords  sufficient  time  to 
try  out  the  policy. 

In  foreign  countries  three-  or  even  six-year  periods 
are  thought  brief  enough.  Another  thoughtful  pro- 
vision is  that  whatever  the  outcome  of  an  election 
it  does  not  become  operative  until  the  lapse  of  con- 
siderable time  so  that  the  community  may  have  time 
to  adjust  itself  to  the  new  conditions.  Our  legisla- 
tion, as  a  rule,  does  not  reflect  the  idea  that  any 
time  is  needed  (the  lapse  of  a  few  months  is  hardly 


216  TEMPERANCE  REFORM 

to  be  counted),  even  when  a  transition  to  state-wide 
prohibition  impends.  The  State  of  Virginia  set  the 
exceptional  and  valuable  example  in  decreeing 
that  on  the  acceptance  of  prohibition  the  law  should 
not  become  operative  until  the  expiration  of  about 
two  years.  The  principle  of  local  option  is  really 
not  in  favor  with  the  out-and-out  prohibitionist  ex- 
cept as  it  helps  to  remove  obstacles  to  state-wide 
prohibition.  So  long  as  the  principle  is  taken  to 
imply  the  right  of  a  community  to  continue  the  liquor 
traffic,  the  radical  prohibitionist  ought  not  to  up- 
hold it,  for  he  professes  that  liquor-selling  is  wrong 
under  all  conditions.  If  it  is  inherently  wrong,  why 
should  he  petition  for  the  right  to  decide  the  ques- 
tion by  ballot.?  This  slight  inconsistency  does  not 
seem  to  trouble  the  most  violent  denunciators  of  the 
use  as  well  as  of  the  sale  of  liquor  in  any  form.  Per- 
haps they  find  an  excuse  in  the  utility  of  local  option 
as  a  means  of  gaining  dry  territory  with  general 
prohibition  as  the  ultimate  aim.  It  may  be  said  in 
passing  that  if  it  be  right  for  a  local  community  to 
exercise  option  periodically  in  regard  to  licensing 
and  forbidding  the  liquor  traffic,  the  same  right 
should  be  enjoyed  by  a  whole  state.  The  legislation 
of  other  countries  recognizes  this  and  provides  for 
an  expression  of  opinion  at  certain  intervals  as  a  test 
of  the  sentiment  behind  prohibition.  We  proceed 
upon  the  natural  theory  that  once  it  is  accepted, 
state  prohibition,  unlike  local  option,  must  remain 
immutable  and  that  the  public  sentiment  expressed 


LOCAL  OPTION  217 

for  it  remains  a  fixed  quantity.  Hence  the  strong 
effort  to  write  prohibition  into  the  constitutions, 
both  state  and  national.  These  contradictory  atti- 
tudes toward  principles  that  in  essence  are  the  same 
cannot  be  reconciled. 

A  remarkable  example  of  the  change  that  may  take 
place  in  public  sentiment  occurred  in  Vermont  at  an 
election  held  in  March,  1916.  The  question  of  re- 
taining the  present  local-option  law  or  re-enacting 
prohibition  was  referred  to  the  voters.  Vermont 
had  been  under  prohibition  from  1852  until  1903, 
when  it  was  repealed  by  a  majority  of  729  votes.  In 
the  election  of  1916  the  state,  by  a  majority  of 
13,464,  refused  to  re-enact  the  prohibitory  amend- 
ment. Every  county  but  one  decided  in  favor  of 
continuing  under  the  local-option  law.  It  is  not 
known  that  much  heavy  campaigning  was  done  prior 
to  the  election  except  by  the  anti-saloon  forces. 
Many  towns  that  rejected  prohibition  refused  per- 
sistently to  grant  licenses.  Only  twenty-three  cities 
and  towns  at  the  last  election  voted  to  issue  saloon 
privileges. 

Some  local-option  devices — for  example,  regula- 
tions as  to  petitions  in  pursuance  of  which  elections 
are  held  make  it  possible  for  adroit  manipulators  to 
lay  dry  a  community  against  its  will.  An  excuse  for 
such  a  prostitution  of  the  local-option  principle  is 
found  in  political  expediency,  since  each  victory  is 
held  to  be  a  step  toward  state-wide  prohibition. 
County  local  option  particularly  lends  itself  to  this 


218  TEMPERANCE  REFORM 

purpose,  on  account  of  the  legislative  representation 
which  may  be  secured. 

Unquestionably  much  of  the  strenuous  campaign 
for  no  license  has  been  far  less  marked  by  solicitude 
for  temperance  than  by  a  desire  to  gain  political  pre- 
ponderance. Once  an  election  district  is  made  dry 
its  representative  in  the  legislature  will  self-evidently 
incline  to  the  prohibition  side  even  at  the  cost  of  per- 
sonal conviction.  This  kind  of  compromise  with 
one's  self  for  the  sake  of  place  is  so  common  a  feature 
of  public  life  that  it  scarcely  attracts  attention  ex- 
cept in  very  flagrant  instances.  But  when  legisla- 
tion which  in  a  very  special  sense  demands  the  support 
of  a  mature  public  opinion,  is  acted  upon  by  men 
who  themselves  secretly  spurn  it,  the  cause  of  moral- 
ity is  not  likely  to  be  benefited. 

If  rightfully  applied,  there  can  be  no  quarrel  with 
the  choice  of  the  county  as  the  unit  in  local-option 
elections,  provided  it  is  populated  chiefly  by  rural 
inhabitants  or  by  village  folk.  Indeed,  within  such 
units  one  may  hope  to  find  a  uniform  and  healthy 
sentiment  which  makes  local  option  both  attainable 
and  desirable.  But  when  a  county  contains  a  muni- 
cipality of  considerable  importance,  and  the  extra- 
mural vote  is  utilized  for  the  purpose  of  overcoming 
the  known  majority  for  license  in  the  city,  the  very 
essence  of  the  law,  the  right  of  choice,  is  violated. 
Very  many  instances  of  this  kind  have  occurred,  for 
instance  in  the  Middle  Western  states  with  their 
numerous     and     rapidly     growing     municipalities. 


LOCAL  OPTION  219 

Scores  of  these  have  had  a  taste  of  local  prohibition, 
not  from  choice  but  under  compulsion  by  the  rural 
vote.  Then,  as  a  rule,  hateful  violations  of  the  law 
begin,  perhaps  accompanied  by  disorder  and  blood- 
shed, and  persist  until  abated  by  a  return  to  license. 
The  local  police  are  not  likely  to  curry  disfavor  by 
ruthlessly  hunting  down  the  illicit  traffic;  and  its 
tolerance  would  not  infrequently  follow  but  for  the 
employment  of  private  "  spotters  "  by  certain  pro- 
hibition organizations.  Meanwhile  civic  authority 
generally,  as  well  as  ardor  for  temperance,  is  certain 
to  have  suffered.  A  city  returning  to  license  after 
such  an  experience  is  the  poorer  for  it;  besides,  the 
transition  to  the  old  order  of  things  is  often  marked 
by  a  reaction  for  the  worse.  A  counter-part  of  the 
folly  of  coercive  prohibition  enactments  is  the  wanton 
campaigning  for  license  in  a  community  which  is 
clearly  opposed  to  the  liquor  traffic.  The  instances 
of  it  are  all  too  frequent  and  the  interests  respon- 
sible deserve  the  severest  rebuke.  The  trade  in  in- 
toxicants may  in  many  places  be  a  necessity,  but  it  is 
not  per  se  desirable  and  least  of  all  to  be  foisted 
upon  a  community. 

On  the  other  hand,  liquor-dealers  can  hardly  be 
censured  for  seeking  to  regain  territory  which  has 
been  won  for  local  prohibition  by  devious  means  and 
contrary  to  the  known  wishes  of  its  citizenship. 

It  belongs  to  the  credo  of  the  prohibition  confes- 
sion that  all  beverages  with  alcoholic  properties  are 
equally  harmful.     The  suggestion  that,  if  some  dis- 


220  TEMPERANCE  REFORM 

tinction  were  made,  greater  continuity  might  be 
gained  for  a  no-license  policy  will,  therefore,  be 
scorned  as  a  subterfuge  for  undermining  the  very 
object  of  local  prohibition.  Scientists,  to  be  sure, 
agree  that  beverages  containing  less  than  2  or  214 
per  cent  of  alcohol  are  non-injurious;  and  in  coun- 
tries whose  progressive  liquor  legislation  is  largely 
shaped  by  teetotalers,  beverages  of  this  kind  are 
exempted  from  taxation  and  declared  non-intoxicat- 
ing. 

The  fact  that  the  exclusion  of  harmless  drinks 
may  stimulate  the  substitution  of  the  most  noxious 
distilled  liquors  or  even  chemical  preparations,  as  is 
witnessed  the  country  over,  does  not  seem  to  move 
our  reformers.  Nor  are  they  actuated  simply  by 
fear  that  a  drink  containing  insignificant  traces  of 
alcohol  must  necessarily  create  a  lasting  appetite 
for  the  intoxicating  kind.  They  appear  to  derive  a 
peculiar  moral  satisfaction  from  condemning  alcohol 
in  all  its  forms.  The  abstract  hatred  of  it  is  reck- 
oned as  a  virtue  and  may  by  some  even  be  regarded 
as  an  element  in  religion.  This  mistaken  identifica- 
tion of  values  is  strongly  reflected  in  some  legisla- 
tion. 

American  laws  forbid  the  use  of  certain  liquors 
even  if  they  are  not  intoxicating!  Thus,  in  West 
Virginia,  all  malt-brewed  drinks,  "  whether  intoxi- 
cating or  not,"  are  prohibited.  The  State  of  Wash- 
ington, in  its  new  prohibition  law,  bars  all  liquors 
**  which  contain  any  alcohol  and  which  are  capable 


LOCAL  OPTION  221 

of  being  used  as  a  beverage."  North  Dakota  defines 
among  the  forbidden  drinks,  not  only  malt  liquors  of 
any  description,  but  "  all  so-called  fruit  *  ades,'  imi- 
tation ciders,  and  beverages  under  whatever  name  or 
description,"  and  forbids  them  to  "  be  manufactured 
and  sold  to  be  used  as  a  beverage  or  a  substitute  for 
intoxicating  liquors." 

The  same  sort  of  legislation  is  made  to  apply  to 
the  dry  areas  of  license  states.  For  example,  in 
Indiana  it  is  not  lawful  to  sell  any  malt  liquor  in 
local-option  territory  even  if  it  is  non-intoxicating. 
In  Iowa  long  ago  the  courts  upheld  this  view :  "  A 
beverage  containing  alcohol  is  an  intoxicant,  regard- 
less of  whether  the  quantity  of  alcohol  contained  in 
it  is  or  is  not  of  itself  intoxicating."  In  Wisconsin 
the  sale  of  malt  liquor  containing  alcohol  is  made 
an  offense  in  local  prohibition  districts,  "  though  the 
beverage  is  a  non-intoxicant." 

The  assumption  of  the  law  is  that  there  cannot  be 
any  proper  substitute  for  intoxicating  liquor,  re- 
gardless of  its  percentage  of  alcohol,  or  even  when 
it  has  no  trace  of  alcohol  so  long  as  it  is  labeled  by 
the  terrifying  name  of  "  malt."  Presumably,  the 
singular  theory  is  that  even  harmless  drinks  must 
needs  create  an  appetite  for  alcohol  provided  they 
suggest  an  affinity  with  the  intoxicating  kind.  Cur- 
rent legislation  thus  systematically  repudiates  the 
lesson  of  experience, — namely,  that  by  forbidding 
non-injurious  fermented  drinks  one  invites  the  use 
of  the  most  dangerous  intoxicants.     Hence  the  dis- 


222  TEMPERANCE  REFORM 

quieting  rise  in  the  production  of  distilled  liquors 
during  the  years  in  which  the  most  notable  victories 
for  state  and  local  prohibition  were  won. 

Of  course  our  legislation  has  been  inconsistent  in 
making  distinctions  between  various  kinds  of  intoxi- 
cating beverages.  There  would  be  interference  with 
a  farmer  who  brewed  a  weak  beer  for  home  use,  but 
he  may  produce  an  unlimited  quantity  of  cider  which 
in  its  "  hard  "  form  is  highly  intoxicating,  as  many 
of  our  rural  districts  bear  witness.  Also  in  France 
a  great  deal  of  alcoholism  in  rural  places  is  attrib- 
uted directly  to  the  inordinate  use  of  cider.  And 
while  the  usual  alcoholic  beverages  are  contraband, 
patent  medicines,  rich  in  the  vilest  forms  of  alcohol, 
have  had  unrestricted  sale  in  prohibition  territory. 
The  pure-food  law,  which  requires  a  statement  of  the 
alcoholic  contents  of  each  bottle  of  medicine,  has 
probably  helped  to  diminish  this  source  of  drunken- 
ness ;  but  still  the  evil  is  there.  The  point  is  merely 
this,  that  our  legislation  over-emphasizes  relatively 
unimportant  things  and  still  makes  certain  compacts 
with  alcohol. 

m 

TAXATION    OF    ALCOHOL 

Like  prohibition  legislation,  our  efforts  to  develop 
effective  systems  of  license  control  are  vitiated 
through  false  concepts.  Under  favorable  conditions 
two  motives  struggle  for  mastery  in  shaping  license 


TAXATION  OF  ALCOHOL  223 

policies:  one  is  the  desire  for  as  much  revenue  as  the 
traffic  will  bear;  the  other,  the  desire  to  prevent  in- 
temperance. As  the  two  motives  are  hostile,  if  not 
mutually  exclusive,  a  poor  compromise  results. 

We  have  steadfastly  clung  to  the  inherited  con- 
ception of  the  liquor  traffic  as  a  singularly  profitable 
business  and  therefore  to  be  taxed  heavily,  altogether 
subordinating  the  consideration  of  taxation  as  a  pos- 
sible means  of  promoting  temperance.  The  Federal 
government  sets  a  bad  example.  In  declaring  every 
beverage  containing  more  than  one-half  per  cent  of 
alcohol  subject  to  taxation,  it  confuses  the  definition 
of  intoxicants  and  makes  difficult  the  substitution  of 
the  lighter  for  the  more  alcoholic  drinks.  In  levy- 
ing taxes  on  the  usual  alcoholic  drinks,  the  Federal 
government  makes  a  distinction  as  to  kind  between 
distilled  and  fermented  liquors,  but  solely  for  the 
purpose  of  revenue  and  based  upon  the  amount  that 
production  will  stand.  The  idea  of  employing  the 
tax-levying  power  to  discourage  the  use  of  distilled 
liquors  as  the  real  generators  of  alcoholism  is  foreign 
to  our  Federal  legislation.  The  true  reason  why 
spirits  escaped  the  latest  war  tax  was  the  fear  that 
an  extra  impost  would  curtail  production !  Further- 
more, fermented  liquors  are  taxed  merely  according 
to  quantity,  not  according  to  kind.  The  least  alco- 
holic and  most  wholesome  beers  are  made  to  share 
the  same  burden  as  the  heavy  ales.  Doubtless  the 
Federal  government  would  be  severely  put  to  it  were 
it  deprived  of  all  income  from  the  manufacture  and 


224  TEMPERANCE  REFORM 

sale  of  liquor;  but  must  the  good  of  society  be 
wholly  divorced  from  systems  of  laying  taxes? 

European  temperance  legislation,  as  is  explained 
in  the  preceding  chapter,  without  dissenting  voices 
among  the  avowed  prohibitionists,  puts  a  premium 
on  the  production  of  malt  drinks  containing  not 
more  than  214  P^r  cent  of  alcohol  by  exempt- 
ing them  from  license  fees  and  making  their  sale 
free  to  all.  Even  Iceland,  the  only  country  in  the 
world  under  absolute  prohibition  in  the  sense  that 
not  only  the  manufacture  and  sale  but  also  the  im- 
portation of  liquor  is  forbidden,  makes  this  excep- 
tion. Occasionally  prohibitionists  on  the  other  side 
disagree  as  to  whether  the  limit  of  alcohol  in  the 
tax-free  drinks  should  be  placed  at  2  or  2^  per 
cent,  but  they  subscribe  to  the  general  principle 
that  certain  light  alcoholic  drinks  are  harmless  and 
believe  that  their  substitution  for  the  heavier  kinds 
is  a  practical  temperance  measure. 

The  fatuous  pattern  of  Federal  legislation  is  more 
or  less  reflected  in  state  laws:  the  desire  for  revenue 
has  been  allowed  to  dominate.  Self-evidently,  the 
liquor  interests  fight  for  low  taxes.  Their  natural 
opponents  have  proceeded  on  the  theory  that,  since 
the  traffic  does  so  much  harm,  the  greatest  possible 
number  of  dollars  should  be  extracted  from  it  in 
reparation;  and  legislators  generally  are  eager  to 
grasp  at  an  excuse  for  seeking  additional  revenue. 
To  be  sure,  the  system  of  high  license  has  been 
evolved  on  the  ground  that  a  heavy  fee  would  serve 


HIGH  LICENSE  AND   RESTRICTION    225 

to  weed  out  superfluous  saloons,  facilitate  supervi- 
sion, eliminate  the  less  responsible  and  unsubstantial 
dealers,  and  thus  elevate  the  whole  tone  of  the  trade. 
But  experience  has  not  vindicated  this  theory  except 
in  minor  details. 

IV 

HIGH    LICENSE    AND    RESTEICTION 

A  fundamental  defect  of  the  high-license  system 
from  the  taxation  point  of  view  is  that  a  uniform 
fee  is  exacted,  and  not  one  based  upon  the  amount 
of  alcohol  sold.  Another  just  as  fatal  defect  is  that 
high-license  legislation  fails  to  recognize  the  taxing 
power  as  a  means  of  promoting  temperance  by  en- 
couraging the  sale  of  the  least  alcoholic  beverages. 
The  suggestion  that  there  could  be  any  choice  be- 
tween alcoholic  "  poisons "  is  extremely  repugnant 
to  extremists,  who  regard  all  liquors  as  equally 
typifying  the  "  demon  alcohol,"  and  refuse  to  recog- 
nize a  mid-road  between  prohibition  and  excess — 
moderation — to  which  a  rational  license  system 
should  lead. 

As  at  present  operated,  the  high-license  system 
acts  as  an  incentive  to  push  sales  in  order  to  show 
profit,  and,  unhappily  for  temperance,  under  the 
usual  method  of  classifying  licenses  the  temptation  is 
particularly  to  push  the  sale  of  distilled  liquors.  In- 
deed, saloons  given  over  solely  to  fermented  drinks 
lead  a  precarious  existence  in  high-license  places,  for 


226  TEMPERANCE  REFORM 

the  big  profit  lies  in  selling  whiskey.  This  neglect 
of  elementary  but  far-reaching  principles,  which 
characterizes  most  of  the  license  legislation,  must  be 
weighed  against  the  largely  illusory  advantages  sup- 
posed to  be  incident  to  high  fees — the  simplification 
of  control,  the  close  observance  of  rules  on  account 
of  the  cost  of  the  privilege,  the  greater  inducement 
for  men  of  substance,  and  therefore  of  responsibility, 
to  enter  the  trade,  and  so  forth. 

That  high  license  puts  many  saloons  out  of  exist- 
ence is  not  an  inherent  merit,  for  this  can  be  done 
by  statutory  limitation  of  licenses  such  as  exists  in 
several  states,  and  by  a  proper  regard  for  reason- 
able public  demands  in  granting  selling  privileges. 
Meanwhile,  the  resulting  concentration  of  the  emolu- 
ments from  the  traffic  into  fewer  hands  tends  to 
unify  an  undesirable  power. 

To  impose  a  substantial  fee  for  the  exercise  of  a 
privilege  beset  by  palpable  dangers  is  a  thoroughly 
reasonable  method  of  procedure;  but  to  gauge  the 
value  of  a  license  system  by  the  amount  of  the  fee 
charged  is  thoroughly  illogical.  If  large  weight 
must  be  given  the  damage  resulting  from  drink  which 
puts  the  community  to  certain  expenses,  then  the 
only  reasonable  method  is  to  levy  taxes  not  simply 
upon  the  place  but  according  to  the  amount  of  alco- 
hol sold. 

Of  the  endless  variety  of  restrictive  measures 
drafted  upon  license  systems,  it  may  be  said  in  pass- 
ing that  a  few  are  obviously  useful,  many  trivial. 


HIGH   LICENSE  AND   RESTRICTION    227 

some  stupid,  and  still  others  merely  irritating. 
Whatever  makes  for  concealment  invites  circumven- 
tion of  the  law  and  should  not  be  permitted;  and 
no  one  can  sensibly  advocate  relaxing  restrictions 
against  selling  to  minors  and  intoxicated  persons, 
or  those  governing  hours  of  sale,  or  regulations  gen- 
erally intended  to  hold  the  traffic  in  check.  But  la- 
borious enactments  prescribing  whether  drink  may 
be  consumed  standing  or  sitting  at  a  table,  with  or 
without  food  and  excluding  the  most  harmless  forms 
of  diversion;  and  a  multitude  of  others  which  aim, 
in  brief,  to  make  the  saloon  a  drink-shop  pure  and 
simple,  not  only  belong  to  the  unessentials  but  di- 
rectly hinder  constructive  effort.  They  are  merely 
the  expression  of  the  extreme  view  that  drink-selling 
is  in  itself  an  immoral  occupation. 

Among  reformers  of  the  rational  type  there  is  a 
diversity  of  views  in  regard  to  the  desirability  of 
divorcing  drink-selling  from  every  form  of  attrac- 
tion and  restricting  it  solely  to  the  one  business  of 
selling  intoxicants.  The  English  exponents  of  the 
company  system  seek  to  reduce  the  temptation  to 
indulge  in  alcoholic  beverages  by  a  liberal  provision 
of  counter-attractions  in  the  form  of  soft  drinks, 
appetizing  foods,  and  the  like.  In  Norway,  on  the 
other  hand,  the  places  in  the  control  of  the  samlags 
offer  but  one  inducement,  the  opportunity  to  buy 
liquor.  The  customer  is  not  invited  to  remain,  nor 
is  he  offered  other  forms  of  refreshment.  No  hard 
and  fast  principles  can  be  laid  down  in  regard  to 


226  TEMPERANCE  REFORM 

the  particular  auspices  under  which  drinks  should 
be  served.  What  suits  one  nation  may  be  wholly 
unsuited  to  another  with  different  customs  and 
habits.  Our  own  population  is  so  diversified  that 
rules  in  regard  to  the  method  of  serving  drink  which 
in  one  place  might  conduce  to  greater  sobriety  would 
in  another  probably  lead  to  the  patronage  of  illicit 
places. 

Moreover,  intemperance  is  not  such  an  extraneous 
thing  that  it  is  appreciably  affected  by  the  simple 
expedients  that  we  have  discussed.  It  may,  indeed, 
be  a  grave  mistake  to  give  too  great  weight  to  them 
in  legislation.  A  striking  example  of  this  kind  is 
furnished  by  the  so-called  Raines  Law  of  New  York. 
In  its  original  form  it  proposed  to  attack  the  drink 
evil,  among  other  things,  by  turning  the  saloons  into 
hotels,  the  theory  being  that  when  necessarily  asso- 
ciated with  catering  and  other  appurtenances  of  a 
hostelry  the  ordinary  saloon  would  have  to  go  be- 
cause it  could  not  stand  the  economic  strain  of  com- 
plying with  the  law  in  regard  to  the  number  of 
rooms  and  kitchen  conveniences.  The  result  of  this 
legislation  was  to  call  into  life  the  infamous  Raines 
Law  hotels,  so  called,  which  for  a  large  part  degen- 
erated into  disorderly  houses  of  the  most  malignant 
type,  from  which  the  city  of  New  York  in  particular 
suffered.  "When  the  Committee  of  Fourteen  at- 
tempted to  suppress  the  Raines  Law  hotels,  which 
was  the  purpose  of  this  organization,  by  removing 
the  advantage  given  the  hotel  keeper  by  the  liquor 


LICENSING  AUTHORITIES  229 

law,  the  amendment  proposed  was  defeated  by  those 
opposed  to  the  liquor  traffic,  because  the  amend- 
ment would  have  legalized  the  traffic  in  liquor  on 
Sunday  in  saloons.  To  the  opponents,  an  extension 
of  the  legal  hours  of  traffic  was  a  greater  evil  than 
the  disorderly  hotels." 


LICENSING   AUTHORITIES 

Some  hold  the  crux  of  liquor  legislation  to  be  the 
choice  of  authorities  vested  with  power  to  grant  and 
revoke  selling  privileges.  A  sense  of  this  is  reflected 
in  the  numerous  experiments  with  different  already 
existing  or  specifically  created  bodies  to  whom  juris- 
diction in  licensing  has  been  intrusted.  From  the 
diversity  of  legislation  upon  this  subject  as  illus- 
trated in  different  states,  and  from  the  experience 
it  has  led  to,  some  general  conclusions  can  be  drawn. 

Local  political  bodies  such  as  city  councils  or 
county  commissioners  are  often  tempted  beyond  their 
strength  when  awarded  control  of  liquor  licenses, 
which  in  a  peculiar  way  requires  freedom  from  ap- 
proach and  a  desire  to  set  public  good  above  self- 
preferment.  Locally  appointed  boards  have  been 
found  to  be  too  easily  "  reached."  To  give  elective 
police  officials  the  authority  to  confer  privileges 
which  they  are  set  to  watch  over  is  merely  an  in- 
sidious invitation  to  graft.  Licensing  boards  ap- 
pointed by  the  governor  of  a  state  for  specified  lo- 


230  TEMPERANCE  REFORM 

calities  have  given  a  measure  of  success,  of  which 
perhaps  Boston  furnishes  the  most  notable  example. 
Of  course  this  method  appears  to  be  a  perversion  of 
accepted  principles  of  local  self-government. 

The  experience  with  state  boards  as  licensing 
bodies  is  too  limited  to  warrant  significant  conclu- 
sions. Except  for  short-lived  experiments  in  a  few 
states,  Ohio  is  at  the  present  time  the  only  one  oper- 
ating under  this  form  of  licensing  the  liquor  traffic. 
A  central  authority  established  primarily  for  the 
purpose  of  collecting  revenue  is  hardly  to  be  recom- 
mended, for  the  larger  object  should  be  to  prevent 
licenses  from  getting  into  the  hands  of  bad  men  and 
to  exercise  close  supervision  over  the  traffic  gener- 
ally. In  a  large  state  this  would  seem  to  be  an  in- 
superable task  for  a  single  board;  and  there  is 
danger  in  superseding  the  initiative  and  responsi- 
bility of  the  local  authorities  by  state  officials  who 
must  first  acquire  the  necessary  knowledge  of  the 
needs  and  peculiarities  of  the  place  in  which  licenses 
are  to  be  exercised.  Then  there  is  the  question  ever 
present  under  our  form  of  government  of  prevent- 
ing political  considerations  from  overruling  the  de- 
sire for  a  strict  regulation  of  the  saloon  traffic.  In 
this  instance,  the  temptation  to  play  politics  would 
perhaps  be  unusually  strong. 

In  some  states  the  courts  grant  licenses  notwith- 
standing the  reasonable  theoretical  plea  that  execu- 
tive functions  should  be  absolutely  divorced  from 
the  judicial.     In  practice,  this  plan  is  perhaps  of 


LICENSING  AUTHORITIES  231 

unequal  value ;  but  where  best  developed,  as  in  Penn- 
sylvania, it  has  on  the  whole  proved  an  efficient 
method  of  licensing,  and  it  has  been  adopted  in  a 
few  states.  The  hearing  of  applications  for  licenses 
as  well  as  of  remonstrances  in  open  court  is  helpful, 
particularly  when  the  law  prescribes  that  in  grant- 
ing licenses  the  needs  of  the  community  shall  be  a 
primary  consideration. 

It  must  be  admitted,  however,  that  in  Pennsyl- 
vania the  legal  profession  has  expressed  much  dis- 
satisfaction with  the  existing  law,  which  makes  the 
judges  of  the  Court  of  Quarter  Sessions  the  licensing 
authorities.  Their  complaint,  aside  from  the  valid 
theoretical  objection,  is  that  the  courts  are  liable  to 
be  tainted  by  "  liquor  politics."  Unfortunately, 
there  have  been  so-called  "  liberal "  judges  who  in 
return  for  pre-election  aid  have  proved  lax  in  their 
duties  and  issued  licenses  indiscriminately.  Occa- 
sionally, also,  judges  have  paid  for  the  support  of 
the  temperance  element  by  refusing  to  grant  licenses 
within  their  jurisdiction.  Under  an  appointive  sys- 
tem of  judges  such  shortcomings  should  disappear; 
but  so  long  as  a  judiciary  is  elective,  politics,  both 
of  the  liquor  and  other  varieties,  may  influence  it. 
The  danger  under  consideration  is  evidently  intensi- 
fied when  the  lowest  courts  are  in  question. 

Probably  no  system  of  licensing  authority  can  be 
devised  that  will  wholly  satisfy  grasping  dealers  and 
prohibition  zealots.  Dissatisfaction  with  the  numer- 
ous experiments,  except  that  involving  the  judiciary. 


232  TEMPERANCE  REFORM 

— which  had  not  been  tried, — ^finally  led  the  state 
of  New  York  to  adopt  its  present  tax  law,  which 
practically  eliminates  the  judicial  function  in  grant- 
ing licenses.  The  weighty  objection  to  it  is,  how- 
ever, that  it  tends  to  over-emphasize  the  importance 
of  the  liquor  traffic  as  a  source  of  revenue.  The 
more  a  state  is  made  to  realize  the  ease  with  which 
millions  in  tribute  can  be  levied  on  drink-selling,  the 
less  it  will  be  disposed  to  subordinate  the  desire  for 
a  low  tax-rate  to  the  application  of  measures  where- 
with to  conquer  alcoholism. 

The  whole  problem  of  licensing  authorities  would 
become  greatly  simplified  by  the  adoption  of  other 
principles  than  those  of  repression  and  regulation 
now  followed.  Nevertheless  there  are  encouraging 
examples  of  faithful  and  efficient  service  by  licensing 
authorities  under  laws  that  are  manifestly  imperfect 
in  principle  and  difficult  of  execution. 

VI 

ESSENTIALS    OF    PBOGRESSIVE    KEFOSM 

This  hasty  review  of  some  of  the  principal  ele- 
ments in  our  liquor  legislation  but  inadequately  por- 
trays the  chaotic  conglomeration  of  statutory  provi- 
sions which  from  year  to  year  is  accumulated  in  the 
name  of  temperance  control — which  is  never  really 
achieved,  since  it  proceeds  on  outworn  and  mistaken 
principles.  The  crude  output  is  a  logical  result  of 
current  methods,   for  the  persons   chosen   to   draft 


ESSENTIALS  OF  REFORM  233 

liquor  laws  seldom  need  qualify  through  general  fit- 
ness or  knowledge  of  many  intricate  questions.  It  is 
a  hit-or-miss  job  amid  the  distracting  bustle  of  a 
busy  legislative  session. 

To  complicate  the  situation  there  are  always  two 
outside  elements  to  be  reckoned  with:  First,  those 
who  reform  for  hire,  abetted  by  well-meaning  ob- 
structionists whose  wisdom  in  liquor  legislation  is 
bounded  by  a  desire  to  harass  the  traffic  which  the 
law  assumes  to  protect  when  it  is  legalized ;  secondly, 
the  liquor  interests,  which  fight  obstinately,  partly 
to  hold  their  own,  partly  to  ward  off  new  financial 
burdens  or  irksome  regulations. 

It  is  highly  significant  that  the  outcome  of  legis- 
lative effort  commonly  is  hailed  as  a  victory  for  the 
"  drys  "  or  the  "  wets,"  as  the  case  may  be,  and  that 
when  new  statutory  regulations  have  been  adopted 
we  almost  studiously  refrain  from  searching  out 
their  effect.  The  inarticulate  public,  the  long-suf- 
fering patient  upon  whom  this  or  that  legal  nostrum 
is  to  be  tried,  usually  remains  dumb,  from  fear  of 
incurring  the  enmity  of  either  side,  or  from  indif- 
ference, or  because  it  does  not  see  that,  as  between 
license  legislation  of  proved  incapacity  to  promote 
temperance,  and  prohibition,  there  is  a  third  choice — 
the  choice  of  tried  experiments  based  upon  a  ra- 
tional conception  of  the  many  elements  that  consti- 
tute the  whole  problem. 

That  the  forces  who  shape  our  liquor  laws  should 
not  consult  the  public  is  perhaps  natural;  but  that 


284  TEMPERANCE  REFORM 

they,  especially  the  temperance  wing,  should  ignore 
the  very  existence  of  the  public,  is  a  psychological 
phenomenon.  For  after  all  it  is  the  great  drink- 
consuming  public  that  is  hurt  or  helped  by  legisla- 
tion; it  is  the  public,  not  the  liquor  dealers  or  tem- 
perance hosts,  in  whose  hands  it  lies  to  make  or  mar 
the  law.  So  long  as  we  proceed  without  proper  re- 
gard for  the  public,  its  needs  and  expressed  wants, 
we  shall  continue  to  legislate  ineflFectually  or  disas- 
trously. 

Progressive  temperance  reform  demands  that  the 
patchwork  of  rusty  principles  underlying  our  pres- 
ent liquor  legislation  be,  in  part,  discarded,  in  part 
rebuilt  from  the  bottom  up.  The  following  para- 
graphs indicate  summarily  the  objectives  in  law-mak- 
ing adapted  to  our  needs; 

1.  In  dealing  with  the  liquor  traffic,  the  desire 
for  revenue  must  give  way  to  the  employment  of 
the  tax-laying  power  as  a  means  of  minimizing  the 
drink  evil.  Since  the  "  curse  of  alcoholism  "  flows 
from  spirits  and  not  from  beers  and  light  wines,  the 
heavy  hand  of  the  tax-gatherer  should  in  the  first 
instance  be  laid  on  distilled  liquors  to  the  point  of 
their  utter  repression.  So  drastic  a  measure  would 
defeat  its  own  purpose  unless  legislation  at  the  same 
time  encouraged  the  substitution  of  fermented  drinks 
in  place  of  the  distilled,  through  a  system  of  care- 
fully graduated  taxes  upon  fermented  liquors  in  pro- 
portion to  their  alcoholic  strength. 

Thanks  to  a  false  temperance  doctrine,  we  habitu- 


ESSENTIALS  OF  REFORM  285 

ally  place  all  alcoholic  drinks  on  par  with  regard  to 
their  injurious  effects  and  legislate  accordingly. 
The  objection  that  any  discrimination  tends  to  per- 
petuate the  drink  evil  is  both  untrue  and  short- 
sighted. If,  in  the  course  of  its  development,  the 
country  should  be  made  ready  for  complete  absti- 
nence, the  fact  that  it  had  suppressed  the  worst 
enemy  would  be  a  step  toward  that  end.  The  plea 
that  the  toleration  of  the  sale  of  beer  and  wine  will 
perpetuate  a  politically  as  well  as  socially  danger- 
ous trade  is  not  in  point,  for  under  rational  efforts 
it  can  be  made  amenable  to  law;  it  now  faces  the 
choice  between  decent  respect  for  public  interests 
and  extinction. 

Physiologically,  there  is  a  wide  gulf  between  the 
possible  injury  from  the  ordinary  use  of  pure  light 
beers,  and  the  indubitable  damage  to  the  individual 
as  well  as  to  society  through  a  habitual  indulgence 
in  distilled  spirits.  The  recent  Alcohol  Commission 
of  Norway  says  on  this  point :  "  At  the  outset  it 
must  be  conceded  that  the  danger  to  society  from  al- 
coholic drinks  differs  utterly  according  as  their  alco- 
holic strength  is  large  or  small.  Furthermore,  it 
seems  clear  that  while  the  strongest  of  them — that 
is,  whiskey — must  be  subjected  to  particularly  se- 
vere regulations,  the  opposite  is  true  of  the  weakest 
drinks  of  this  sort.  Quite  on  the  contrary,  the  lat- 
ter should  be  subjected  to  lenient  regulations,  since 
an  increasing  extension  of  their  use  will  serve  to  re- 
place the  stronger  beverages,  and  therefore,  in  the 


2S6  TEMPERANCE  REFORM 

opinion  of  the  majority,  represents  an  essential 
means  in  the  warfare  against  the  abuse  of  alcoholic 
beverages." 

This  view  has  obtained  recognition  in  the  laws, 
not  only  of  Norway  but  of  Sweden  and  Denmark, 
where  beers  containing  2.25  weight  (equaling  2.8 
volume)  per  cent  of  alcohol  are  exempt  from  taxes. 
The  result  has  been  greatly  to  stimulate  their  pro- 
duction and  gradual  substitution  for  stronger  alco- 
holic drinks.  In  Denmark  at  one  time  the  manufac- 
turers protested  against  this  innovation  as  a  ruinous 
experiment,  declaring  that  wholesome  beer  of  such 
a  low  percentage  of  alcohol  could  not  be  produced; 
but  experience  proved  them  wholly  wrong.  Their 
chief  energy  now  appears  to  be  directed  to  the  manu- 
facture of  the  tax-free  grade  of  beers.  In  Norway, 
malt  beverages  for  purposes  of  taxation  are  divided 
into  three  classes,  the  lightest  being  exempt  from 
imposts  and  the  others  taxed  in  proportion  to  their 
alcoholic  strength,  with  a  limit  of  five  and  one-half 
per  cent,  above  which  no  beers  may  be  manufactured. 

It  is  interesting  to  observe  that  even  the  prohibi- 
tionists represented  on  the  Norwegian  Alcohol  Com- 
mission conceded  the  wisdom  of  freeing  the  lightest 
malt  beverages  from  imposts,  but  would  limit  the 
exemption  to  those  not  exceeding  two  per  cent  in 
volume  of  alcohol.  The  consensus  of  opinion  there- 
fore is  that  certain  malt  drinks  must  be  regarded 
as  non-intoxicants  and  should  be  dealt  with  accord- 
ingly.    Only  persons  whose  vision  is  wholly  blinded 


ESSENTIALS  OF  REFORM  237 

by  prejudice  or  obscured  by  the  cobwebs  of  igno- 
rance are  expected  to  enter  a  denial. 

In  any  scheme  of  liquor-tax  reform  the  Federal 
government  must  necessarily  lead  the  way.  Is  that 
an  insuperable  circumstance.''  Congress  has  not 
shown  itself  impervious  to  a  consideration  of  the 
moral  aspects  of  the  drink  question,  and  may  be 
persuaded  to  employ  the  one  safe  method  of  counter- 
acting the  use  of  the  real  intoxicants.  The  sugges- 
tion that  the  Federal  government  can  best  accom- 
plish this  by  monopolizing  the  manufacture  of  dis- 
tilled liquors  seems  perilous  under  our  political  con- 
ditions; but  an  expropriation  of  the  distilled-liquor 
interests  might  be  effected  without  a  direct  burden 
on  the  government,  through  an  extra  tax  on  beer, 
covering,  however,  a  definite  period  of  time. 

It  would  be  altogether  equitable  that  the  liquor 
interests  which  survived  should  help  to  bear  the 
losses  incurred  by  those  that  may  be  suppressed. 
There  is  no  question  of  favoritism,  but  merely  what 
best  conduces  to  sobriety  and  the  general  good  of 
society. 

The  principle  of  taxing  liquors  with  the  object 
of  promoting  temperance  must  be  carried  into  the 
liquor  legislation  of  each  state,  particularly  in  re- 
spect to  the  classification  of  license  privileges  and 
the  fees  exacted.  Locally,  the  makers  of  beer  should 
not  pay  a  uniform  license  fee,  but  one  based  upon 
the  nature  of  their  product,  always  exempting  malt 
drinks   under   a   specified   strength.      Selling-places 


288  TEMPERANCE  REFORM 

should  pay  license  fees  in  proportion  to  the  amount 
and  kind  of  liquor  sold.  The  prevailing  inelastic 
methods  of  imposts  virtually  make  it  impossible  for 
the  vender  of  fermented  drinks  alone  to  subsist.  In 
a  perverted  enthusiasm  for  repression,  we  have  thus 
actually  put  a  premium  on  the  sale  of  "  hard 
liquors,"  since  under  high-license  systems  they  are 
the  really  profitable  articles  of  sale.  As  the  con- 
stant object  should  be  to  discourage  the  use  of  dis- 
tilled beverages,  they  must  be  placed  under  excep- 
tional restrictions,  and  might  conceivably  be  alto- 
gether forbidden  as  an  article  of  consumption  on 
the  premises;  or  the  number  of  places  in  which  they 
could  legally  be  sold  might  be  restricted  to  the  low- 
est limits  consistent  with  the  suppression  of  an  illicit 
traffic. 

Perhaps  it  would  be  wise  to  repress  the  distribu- 
tion of  distilled  liquors  gradually  as  an  article  of 
consumption  except  for  technical  and  medical  pur- 
poses. Always  it  must  be  remembered  that  legisla- 
tion which  outruns  the  support  of  public  opinion 
may  result  in  stimulating  the  illegal  traffic  beyond 
the  bounds  of  control. 

Although  we  are  not  yet  a  wine-drinking  nation, 
it  is  likely  that  a  gradual  suppression  of  the  manu- 
facture and  sale  of  distilled  liquors  would  lead  to 
an  increasing  use  of  wines.  Special  regulative  meas- 
ures would  have  to  be  enacted  governing  the  pro- 
duction and  sale  of  vinous  products.  There  is  no 
reason  in  equity  why  wine  production,  including  the 


ESSENTIALS  OF  REFORM  239 

so-called  fruit  wines,  should  not  be  subject  to  taxa- 
tion after  the  manner  of  other  fermented  drinks. 
Governmental  supervision  is  needed  to  prevent  adul- 
teration and  the  manufacture  of  spurious  articles. 

As  wines  enter  the  retail  trade,  they  must  be  sub- 
ject to  restrictions  placing  the  heaviest  sorts  in  a 
class  with  distilled  liquors.  For  the  rest,  taxes 
should  be  levied,  as  in  the  case  of  beers,  according 
to  alcoholic  strength.  The  displacement  of  whiskey 
would  fail  of  its  purpose  unless  the  substitution  of 
noxious  imitation  wines  is  prevented.  This  method 
would  operate  as  a  reward  to  the  trade  in  the  lightest 
grades  of  wine  and  therefore  the  least  objection- 
able. 

Finally,  especially  severe  restrictions  should  be 
placed  on  alcohol  distributed  in  the  form  of  patent 
medicines  which  present  a  grave  and  insidious  danger 
to  sobriety. 

2.  The  employment  of  the  tax-laying  power  in 
the  interests  of  temperance  would  be  a  vain  en- 
deavor under  loose  or  inadequate  apportionment 
and  supervision  of  the  privileges  to  sell  intoxicants. 
The  essential  details  of  an  ideal  licensing  system 
cannot  be  developed  in  a  few  sentences.  The  starting- 
point  is  the  selection  of  licensing  authorities.  In 
general,  the  choice  seems  to  lie  between  the  local 
judiciary  and  a  state  agency.  As  between  the  two, 
in  view  of  the  extraordinary  complications  into 
which  state  machinery  may  be  thrown  through  polit- 
ical manoeuvers,  it  is  likely  that  in  most  states  the 


240  TEMPERANCE  REFORM 

judiciary  would  render  the  better  service.  The  sys- 
tem should,  so  far  as  possible,  be  uniform  for  the 
entire  state.  Local  licensing  bodies,  through  their 
almost  inevitable  entanglements  with  politics,  re- 
spond poorly  or  not  at  all  to  their  duties. 

Our  states  differ  so  greatly  in  their  legal  tradi- 
tions, the  character  of  their  population,  and  the  pub- 
lic attitude  on  the  drink  question,  that  to  suggest 
a  uniform  scheme  of  licensing  authorities  supposed 
to  be  applicable  to  all  would  be  a  vain  attempt.  This 
much,  however,  may  be  said:  New  and  improved 
conditions  of  dealing  with  the  traflSc  in  liquor  would 
greatly  ease  the  burden  of  issuing  and  supervising 
licenses.  It  is  taken  for  granted  that  any  licensing 
body  should  have  wide  discretionary  powers  in  pre- 
scribing general  conditions  of  license  and  in  revok- 
ing or  suspending  privileges  for  violations  of  the 
law. 

The  control  of  the  retail  traffic  by  producers  of 
liquor  is  directly  harmful  and  makes  for  a  tied- 
house  system  comparable  to  that  of  England. 
It  makes  no  real  difference  whether  the  trade  owns 
saloons  outright  or  controls  them  by  supplying 
capital  to  the  nominal  proprietor  which  enables  him 
to  engage  in  the  business.  In  practice  either  method 
of  control  produces  unwholesome  conditions  and 
renders  it  difficult  to  fix  responsibility  where  it  be- 
longs. The  retailer  should  not  be  the  slave  of  a 
master  whose  one  motto  may  be  to  push  sales,  but  a 
free  agent  responsive  to  public  influences.     Besides, 


ESSENTIALS  OF  REFORM  241 

the  temptation  to  use  saloon  control  for  political 
purposes  must  be  eliminated  in  every  way.  That 
some  producers  insist  upon  decorum  and  strict  obe- 
dience to  law  in  the  saloons  owned  or  controlled  by 
them  does  not  in  the  least  prove  that  proper  observ- 
ance of  public  welfare  can  best  be  obtained  through 
their  proprietorship.  One  notes  with  interest  that 
brewers  round  about  the  country  are  beginning  to 
realize  the  unsoundness  of  a  policy  which  not  only 
puts  the  odium  of  bad  saloon  conditions  on  their 
shoulders,  but  provides  an  incentive  to  antagonize 
efforts  for  betterment.  An  association  of  producers 
in  Indiana  recently  went  on  record  as  favoring  the 
absolute  separation  of  the  retail  trade  from  control 
by  the  producing  interests. 

A  discussion  of  the  many  checks  that  have  been 
invented  to  keep  drink-selling  within  desirable 
bounds  would  carry  us  too  far  afield.  Besides,  a  few 
of  them  are  basic.  The  usefulness  of  proper  closing 
hours  and  their  strict  enforcement,  the  prevention 
of  sales  to  minors  and  intoxicated  persons,  rigor- 
ously excluding  loose  women  from  the  premises,  etc., 
do  not  require  extended  mention.  The  general  prin- 
ciple to  be  followed  must  be  not  to  harass  dealers 
with  trifling  rules,  but  to  make  it  a  condition  of 
license  that  preventable  disorder  and  indecencies  of 
all  kinds  result  in  the  suspension  or  revocation  of 
the  privilege  to  sell.  The  licensing  authorities  must 
see  to  it  that  the  privilege  to  serve  intoxicants  is 
kept  in  responsible  hands.     In  all  matters  of  special 


242  TEMPERANCE  REFORM 

rules  and  restrictions,  the  well-defined  needs  of  the 
community  must  be  consulted. 

The  saloon  has  survived  as  a  social  institution, 
not  as  some  reformers  seem  to  think,  because  brewers 
and  distillers  require  an  outlet  for  their  wares,  but 
because  it  meets  the  instinct  for  fellowship  and  social 
intercourse,  and  the  use  of  drink  is  but  incidental  to 
this  instinct.  No  other  institution  in  the  larger  cities 
furnishes  a  common  meeting-place  imposing  so  few 
obligations  upon  the  visitor.  The  substitutes  in- 
vented for  the  saloon  have  so  far  failed  to  displace 
it,  just  because  they  are  artificial  establishments  and 
cannot  be  patronized  without  a  sense  of  obligation. 
To  infer  a  widespread  craving  for  intoxicants  as 
accounting  sufficiently  for  the  popularity  of  the 
saloon  is  most  superficial.  If  all  the  more  or  less 
habitual  saloon  frequenters  became  drunkards,  alco- 
holism would  long  since  have  swamped  us. 

There  can  be  no  defense  whatsoever  for  the  bad 
features  that  have  so  terribly  characterized  saloon 
life,  but  it  is  another  matter  to  stamp  out  the  institu- 
tion itself.  To  put  the  nation  on  a  milk  and  water 
diet  will  not  extinguish  the  demands  for  stimulants  and 
that  companionship  which  the  saloon  supplies.  The 
real  question  is  to  replace  the  bad  saloons  by  well- 
ordered  places  and  under  auspices  subject  to  com- 
petent control.  It  is  useless  to  sprinkle  rose-water 
on  the  Bowery.  Until  it  is  made  over,  human  nature 
will  have  its  way,  but  legislation  can  help  to  direct 
it  from  straying  too  far.    Unless  in  formulating  the 


ESSENTIALS  OF  REFORM  243 

laws  for  the  regulation  of  drink  we  are  willing  to 
forego  the  abstract  ideal  with  an  eye  to  the  life  that 
pulsates  about  us,  we  shall  only  record  disheartening 
failures.  No  restrictive  measures  can  turn  the  saloon 
into  a  Sunday-school,  but  it  can  be  shorn  of  features 
that  have  made  it  a  by-word. 

One  essential  duty  is  to  prevent  those  who 
notoriously  abuse  drink  from  the  opportunity 
to  purchase  it  on  every  hand.  Mention  has 
been  made  of  the  system  of  individual  licensing  which 
lately  has  obtained  legal  sanction  in  Sweden.  Briefly, 
the  plan  consists  in  "  blacklisting "  all  persons 
known  or  found  to  be  alcoholics  and  strictly 
forbidding  all  sales  of  spirits  to  them;  all  others 
must  present  official  credentials  before  being  per- 
mitted to  buy  distilled  spirits  in  limited  quanti- 
ties. So  far  the  policy  has  yielded  highly  promising 
results.  That  an  inquisitorial  procedure  is  part  of 
this  policy  can  hardly  be  more  repugnant  to  the  in- 
dividualist than  prohibition  with  its  incessant  "  Thou 
shalt  not."  In  some  of  our  states  rudimentary  legis- 
lation has  been  enacted  with  the  object  of  preventing 
sales  to  inebriates ;  its  success,  if  any,  has  been  very 
mild.  Perhaps  the  Swedish  system  of  individual  li- 
censing would  not  prove  very  practicable  in  connec- 
tion with  our  present  system  of  selling  liquors  which 
leaves  so  many  loop-holes  for  evasion  of  the  law. 
Under  improved  legislation  it  might  be  useful,  and 
its  institution  under  the  company  system  of  selling 
liquor  will  be  comparatively  simple. 


244  TEMPERANCE  REFORM 

Much  of  our  liquor  legislation,  especially  in  re- 
gard to  restrictions  on  the  saloon,  has  suffered  from 
the  parochial  opinion  that  what  fits  conditions  in  a 
village  which  really  should  be  without  saloons,  is 
just  as  applicable  to  a  metropolitan  center.  Occa- 
sionally, our  systems  of  control  break  down  from 
sheer  rigidity.  There  should  be  enough  elasticity 
to  allow  for  the  varying  needs  of  the  local  com- 
munity. 

3.  The  local-option  privilege  must  be  maintained, 
but  the  legislation  that  has  grown  up  around  it  needs 
to  be  recast  in  important  respects,  so  that  in  prac- 
tice local  option  shall  mean  what  the  term  implies, 
and  not  become  a  subterfuge  for  seeking  political 
ascendency  or  coercing  the  local  community  to  adopt 
a  given  policy  against  its  will. 

Three  things  seem  to  be  especially  needful  in  order 
to  make  local  prohibition  successful.  First,  the  vote 
should  be  taken  at  intervals  of  not  less  than  three 
years,  so  that  the  plan  decided  upon  may  be  thor- 
oughly tested.  Second,  much  more  than  a  majority, 
perhaps  a  two-thirds  vote,  should  be  required  to 
determine  the  issue.  It  has  been  shown  elsewhere 
that  the  legislation  of  other  countries  recognizes  that 
a  simple  majority  is  not  sufficient  to  guarantee  the 
stability  of  a  no-license  policy. 

It  is  instructive  to  observe  that  the  Norwegian 
Alcohol  Commission  in  its  recent  report  recommends 
that  in  all  local-option  elections  those  who  abstain 
from  voting  shall  be  counted  as  against  prohibition, 


ESSENTIALS  OF  REFORM  245 

on  the  theory  that  its  advocates  will  be  sure  to  ap- 
pear at  the  polls,  and  in  order  to  prevent  a  stam- 
pede against  license  contrary  to  the  desire  of  most 
of  the  voters. 

It  may  be  urged  in  objection  to  this  suggestion 
that  in  many  places  local  prohibition  is  won  by  so 
narrow  a  margin  that  any  other  plan  than  a  simple 
majority  would  bring  about  a  marked  return  to 
license.  The  answer  is,  of  course,  that  without  a  pre- 
ponderance of  public  sentiment  representing  more 
than  a  majority  of  a  small  proportion  of  qualified 
voters,  the  necessary  support  of  no  license  will  not 
be  sufficient  to  insure  proper  enforcement  of  the  law ; 
and  in  such  cases  the  usual  see-saw  between  the  two 
policies  will  occur  which,  as  a  rule,  proves  highly  de- 
moralizing. Communities  that  have  successfully  ex- 
cluded the  saloon  for  a  period  of  years  should  not 
experience  great  difficulty  in  obtaining  more  than  a 
majority  vote  for  no  license.  Another  wholesome  pro- 
vision in  local  option  elections  is  that  at  least  thirty- 
five  per  cent  of  the  qualified  electors  must  participate 
in  it  in  order  to  make  the  result  valid.  To  foist 
local-option  elections  upon  a  community  on  the  peti- 
tion of  a  handful  of  voters  and  to  compel  the  accept- 
ance of  the  verdict  rendered  by  another  handful  of 
electors  does  not  constitute  a  proper  test  of  public 
sentiment. 

Third,  the  units  in  local-option  elections  must  be 
so  defined  that  urban  (not  village)  communities  may 
get  their  preference  respected.     It  is  mere  travesty 


S46  TEMPERANCE  REFORM 

of  the  local-option  principle  and  a  perverted  use  of 
power  when,  for  instance,  under  the  county-unit  sys- 
tem, an  important  municipality  within  the  county 
finds  its  wishes  in  licensing  matters  overridden  by  the 
rural  population  from  remote  parts. 

A  fourth  element  might  be  recognized  in  legis- 
lation,— namely,  giving  the  voters  a  choice  between 
absolute  local  prohibition  and  the  exclusion  from 
sale  of  all  alcoholic  beverages  above  a  specified 
strength.  It  means  a  logical  extension  of  the  prin- 
ciple upon  which  the  taxation  of  liquors  should  be 
based,  and  would  insure  a  continuity  of  the  no-license 
policy  now  lacking  in  many  places,  besides  offering 
a  safeguard  against  the  too  common  violations  of 
prohibition.  The  suggestion  naturally  will  be  re- 
garded as  dealing  a  death-blow  to  local  prohibition 
by  those  who  conceive  that  all  alcoholic  liquors  are 
equally  of  the  devil,  harmful  to  use  and  sinful  to 
sell;  and  the  commonplace  but  wholly  unsubstantial 
objection  will  be  raised  that  the  slightest  relaxing  of 
prohibition  conditions  would  soon  destroy  the  whole 
structure. 

4.  One  cardinal  principle  in  liquor  legislation  un- 
fortunately has  not  yet  intrenched  itself  in  our 
statutes, — that  of  permitting  the  local  community 
to  award  a  monopoly  of  drink-selling  to  a  private 
organization  or  company  which  shall  undertake  it, 
not  for  private  gain,  but  for  the  public  good.  It 
marks  the  one  long  forward  step  in  drink-regulation 
of  a  century.     Rudimentary  experiments  with  this 


ESSENTIALS  OF  REFORM  247 

method  of  control  have  taken  place,  to  be  sure,  in 
certain  of  our  Southern  states,  but  under  imperfect 
regulations  or  practically  under  no  law  at  all. 

In  Sweden  and  Norway  and  already  on  a  consider- 
able scale  in  England,  as  mentioned  in  the  preceding 
chapter,  the  company  system  has  vindicated  its  use- 
fulness in  several  fundamental  respects.  It  has  shown 
itself  to  be  the  only  arrangement  for  selling  under 
which  the  consumption  of  distilled  spirits  gradually 
diminishes  and  alcoholism  to  that  extent  is  lessened. 
It  places  the  responsibility  for  an  inherently  dan- 
gerous traffic  on  citizens  of  high  standard  and  in- 
tegrity, who  by  law  are  made  disinterested  in  sales, 
and  against  whom  not  a  breath  of  scandal  or  sus- 
picion blows.  The  company  system,  instead  of  being 
inimical  to  progressive  liquor  legislation  by  serving 
to  perpetuate  an  undesirable  industry,  step  by  step 
clears  the  way  for  restrictive  measures  of  increasing 
intensity,  without  denying  due  personal  liberty,  and 
permits  far-reaching  experiments  because  it  substi- 
tutes the  public  good  for  the  motive  of  private 
profit. 

To  call  the  company  system  un-American  and 
repugnant  to  our  sentiment  about  drink-selling,  and 
to  say  that  good  people  could  not  be  induced  to 
direct  it,  is  merely  to  beg  the  question.  The  bald 
truth  came  to  the  surface  some  years  ago  when  a 
permissive  act,  which  would  have  enabled  experiments 
with  the  company  system,  came  within  one  vote  of 
passage  by  the  Massachusetts  legislature.     A  coali- 


248  TEMPERANCE  REFORM 

tion  of  prohibitionists  and  liquor-dealers  defeated  it. 
Indeed,  the  prohibitionists  can  claim  the  credit,  for 
they  protested  loudly  and  incessantly  against  the  es- 
sential immorality  of  doing  aught  to  prevent  alco- 
holism, so  long  as  it  included  the  perpetuation  even 
under  the  severest  restrictions  of  the  sale  of  liquor 
of  any  kind  and  in  any  form.  How  rarely  our 
theoretical  squeamishness  translates  itself  into  prac- 
tice, conditions  in  the  prohibition  states  show. 

To  what  extent  the  company  system,  or  a  modi- 
fied adaptation  of  it  to  American  conditions,  is  ap- 
plicable to  large  centers  of  population  cannot  be 
decided  offhand.  But  its  desirability  for  smaller 
urban  communities  can  no  longer  be  doubted.  At  the 
outset  we  should  be  content  with  permissive  laws 
enabling  one  community  after  another,  voting  license, 
to  award  a  private  company  a  monopoly  of  all  sell- 
ing privileges.  Once  the  system  had  vindicated  its 
effectiveness  on  a  modest  scale,  the  demand  for  its 
wider  application  would  become  irresistible. 

One  frequently  hears  the  criticism  made  when  the 
introduction  of  the  company  system  in  America  is 
advocated,  that  responsible  citizens  will  absolutely 
refuse  to  have  aught  to  do  with  the  sale  of  liquor 
even  under  the  most  ideal  auspices.  The  objection 
does  not  hold.  In  the  Southern  states,  under  the 
voluntary  practice  of  the  dispensary  system,  no  diffi- 
culty of  this  sort  was  experienced.  Moreover,  the 
number  of  intelligent  and  public-spirited  men  and 
women  who  do  not  believe  in  prohibition  as  the  one 


ESSENTIALS  OF  REFORM  249 

remedy  is  sufficiently  large  in  all  populous  centers 
to  insure  that  enough  could  be  found  to  act  as  spon- 
sors for  a  private  company  undertaking  a  monopoly 
of  licenses  to  sell  intoxicants. 

Opponents  of  the  company  system  have  argued 
that  its  logical  sequence  is  the  eventual  nationaliza- 
tion of  the  drink  traffic.  The  objection  is  fanciful; 
even  in  the  home-lands  of  the  system  such  an  event 
seems  very  remote.  For  us,  whose  government  is 
often  strained  to  the  breaking  point  by  simpler  af- 
fairs, it  would  be  the  rankest  folly  to  seek  national 
control  of  drink-selling.  Other  things  aside,  the 
difficulties  of  adjusting  our  dual  form  of  government 
to  the  work  would  be  almost  insurmountable. 

The  suggestions  offered  toward  a  program  of  con- 
structive temperance  reform  bear  the  hall-mark  of 
experience  gained  through  generations,  and  of  re- 
spect for  human  nature  even  in  its  frailties.  The 
general  adoption  of  this  program — and  so  happy 
an  event  is  conceivable — would  not  make  the  nation 
proof  against  alcoholism.  There  are  no  legal  for- 
mulae by  which  men  can  be  made  sober.  The  pro- 
hibition doctrine  of  coercion  has  failed  because  it 
postulates  that  the  habits  and  appetites  of  mankind 
are  amenable  to  regulation  after  the  manner  of  some 
inanimate  mechanism ;  and  mistaken  attempts  at 
wholesale  reform  entail  more  social  breakage  than 
salvage. 

Why  should  an  almost  infantile  helplessness  and 
despair  about  the  liquor  problem  possess  so  many 


250  TEMPERANCE  REFORM 

minds?  We  have  learned  that  laws  defective  in  de- 
sign as  well  as  in  execution  cannot  cope  with  it. 
Truly  constructive  legislation  we  lack.  It  remains, 
therefore,  to  adopt  better  ways,  although  they  be  not 
easy  and  will  cost  bitter  struggle  into  which  men  are 
loth  to  enter.  The  extremists  so  easily  make  us  cow- 
ards, by  branding  those  who  venture  to  disagree  as 
dangerous  to  society  or  as  henchmen  of  the  liquor 
interests. 

Measures  for  the  effective  control  of  the  liquor 
traffic  require  collective  effort  and  support.  There 
is  no  excuse  for  delegating  the  whole  question  to  the 
self-elected  body  of  reformers  who  undertake  to 
represent  a  public  sentiment  largely  fictitious  or  of 
their  own  creation.  On  a  closer  view  the  real  enemies 
of  progressive  liquor  legislation  are  found  to  be  a 
compact  group  of  men  who  live  not  only  for  but  by 
the  advocacy  of  prohibition ;  who  are  given  irre- 
sponsible control  of  sums  so  large  that  they  must  sow 
corruption ;  who  are  not  oblivious  of  earthly  ambi- 
tions in  their  solicitude  for  temperance;  and  whose 
own  reason  for  being  is  unending :  national  prohibition 
would  not  terminate  it,  for  that  opens  endless  vistas 
of  occupation  in  enforcing  the  law. 

The  public  is  alive  to  the  claims  of  temperance, 
yet  weary  of  the  age-long  strife  over  the  means 
whereby  it  should  be  promoted.  The  idea  of  more 
repression  fills  thoughtful  men  with  troublous  fore- 
bodings, for  they  know  that  willingness  to  abide  by 
unpopular  laws   is  a   frail  human   endowment.      To 


ESSENTIALS  OF  REFORM  251 

many,  temperance  reform  spells  merely  a  frantic  and 
unwholesome  endeavor  to  gain  the  unattainable;  but 
it  takes  on  a  new  meaning  when  constructive  effort 
lies  at  its  base. 


APPENDIX 

RELATIVE  DEATH-RATES  OF  SELF - 
DECLARED  ABSTAINERS  AND  MODERATE 
DRINKERS  FROM  THE  ACTUARIES' 
VIEW-POINT 

BY    EDWARD    BUNNELL    PHELPS  * 

The  author  recapitulates  the  evidence  cited  by  him  as 
follows : 

"  In  this  paper  I  have  endeavored  to  present,  within 
reasonable  limitations,  a  fairly  complete  summary  of 
actuarial  evidence  and  conclusions  as  to  the  probable  ap- 
proximate relations  of  the  death-rates  of  abstainers  and 
non-abstainers,  in  so  far  as  they  are  to  be  measured  by 
life  insurance  experience.  I  have  tried  to  present  a 
compact  resume  of  all  the  papers  on  the  discussions  of 
the  subject  which  I  have  come  across  in  my  search  of  the 
published  transactions  of  the  various  actuarial  societies, 
summarizing  to  the  best  of  my  ability  any  and  all  points 
of  seeming  importance  made  in  any  of  the  papers  or  dis- 
cussions, whether  they  tended  to  support  or  controvert 
my  own  opinions  on  the  subject.  I  have  not  quoted  the 
figures  of  the  various  comparatively  small  British  life 
companies  which  maintain  separate  departments  for  ab- 
staining and  non-abstaining  members,  with  the  exception 
of  those  for  the  United  Kingdom  Temperance  and  Gen- 

*  From  The  American  Underwriter,  New  York,  June,  1915. 
253 


254  APPENDIX 

eral  Provident  Institution  presented  by  its  actuary,  Mr. 
Moore,  in  his  paper  which  was  summarized  at  the  very 
outset  of  this  paper,  for  the  reason  that  as  the  greater 
includes  the  less  none  of  the  other  '  temperance  com- 
panies '  has  come  in  for  any  serious  attention  in  the 
actuarial  discussions.  Furthermore,  I  gave  considerable 
space  to  the  figures  of  the  United  Kingdom  Temperance 
and  General  Provident  Institution  in  a  previous  paper  of 
mine,  published  under  the  title  of  *  The  Supposed 
Death-Rates  of  Abstainers  and  Non-Abstainers  and 
Their  Lack  of  Scientific  Value,'  in  IPIO,  and  know  of 
no  reason  for  covering  the  same  ground  again,  espe- 
cially as  this  paper  is  practically  restricted  to  the  ac- 
tuarial discussion  of  the  subject. 

"  To  summarize  in  the  briefest  possible  form  the  prin- 
cipal points  of  the  actuarial  discussion  herein  recorded, 
in  his  inaugural  address  as  President  of  the  Institute  of 
Actuaries,  the  late  Mr.  William  Hughes,  on  December 
24,  1902,  expressed  the  wish  that  the  Institute  might  be 
*  favored  by  contributions  proving  the  truth  of  the  oft- 
repeated  assertions  as  to  the  effect  of  total  abstinence 
upon  the  duration  of  life,'  and  expressed  the  opinion  that 
these  '  assertions  rest  at  present  upon  somewhat  uncer- 
tain ground.' 

"  Less  than  a  year  later,  on  November  30,  1903,  Mr. 
Roderick  Mackenzie  Moore,  actuary  of  the  United  King- 
dom Temperance  and  Provident  Institution,  complied 
with  Mr.  Hughes's  wish  and  presented  before  the  Insti- 
tute of  Actuaries  a  paper  '  On  the  Comparative  Mor- 
tality Among  Assured  Lives  of  Abstainers  and  Non- 
Abstainers,'  in  which  he  reviewed  the  61 -year  history 
of  his  company  up  to  1901,  and  showed  that  the  mor- 
tality in  its  temperance  section  had  been  lower  by  about 


APPENDIX  255 

9,6  per  cent  than  had  the  mortality  in  the  non-abstaining 
class,  the  inference  being,  according  to  prohibition 
advocates,  that  this  practically  fixed  the  excess  of  mor- 
tality due  to  alcohol  in  the  world  at  large,  at  least  in 
the  case  of  moderate  drinkers  as  compared  with  total 
abstainers. 

"  This  assumption,  which  has  since  reverberated 
around  the  world  in  text-books  of  physiology  and  all 
sorts  of  other  mediums  controlled  by  the  Woman's 
Christian  Temperance  Union  and  other  prohibitionist  in- 
fluences, was  by  no  means  accepted  by  the  Fellows  of 
the  Institute  of  Actuaries  who  participated  in  the  discus- 
sion following  the  reading  of  Mr.  Moore's  paper.  Mr. 
H.  W.  Manly,  for  instance,  pointed  out  that  '  the  mem- 
bers must  not  be  led  away  into  too  wide  a  generaliza- 
tion from  these  comparisons,'  as  there  were  other  tables 
in  existence  showing  even  lower  death-rates  than  those 
of  the  abstainers  in  Mr.  Moore's  company,  for  instance, 
in  the  Clergy  Mutual  from  1829  to  1887  and  the 
Equitable,  of  London,  from  1863  to  1893. 

"  Mr.  A.  Levine  recalled  the  fact  that  the  abstainers 
and  non-abstainers'  departments  of  the  New  Zealand 
Insurance  Department  showed  substantially  identical 
mortality  experiences,  and  Mr.  George  King  confirmed 
this  statement  on  the  strength  of  his  experience,  with 
Mr.  R.  P.  Hardy,  in  actuarially  advising  the  New 
Zealand  Department  and  in  examining  its  mortality, 
citing  the  fact  that  on  two  valuations  the  non-abstaining 
policyholders  had  received  larger  bonuses  than  had  the 
abstainers,  and  on  two  other  occasions  equal  bonuses, 
the  abstaining  policyholders  only  once  receiving  a 
slightly  larger  bonus.  Mr.  King  added  that  he  thought 
there   was  danger   in  the  discussion  of  the  subject  of 


256  APPENDIX 

the  evening  of  placing  the  cause  for  the  effect,  or  vice 
versa. 

"  Mr.  T.  P.  Whittaker,  M.P.,  for  many  years  Chair- 
man and  Managing  Director  of  the  United  Kingdom 
Temperance,  said  that  many  of  the  Company's  abstain- 
ing members  were  life-long  abstainers,  and  sons  of  ab- 
stainers, and  suggested  that  these  facts  largely  accounted 
for  the  better  experience  of  its  Temperance  Section,  and 
supported  the  contention  that  abstinence  did  lead  to 
longer  life. 

"  The  President  of  the  Institute,  Mr.  Hughes,  sounded 
a  warning  note  as  to  the  uses  to  which  he  clearly  foresaw 
the  figures  in  Mr.  Moore's  paper  would  be  put,  saying 
that  '  enthusiastic  temperance  advocates  would  say  that 
the  favorable  comparison  between  the  two  sections  was 
entirely  due  to  abstinence  from  alcohol.  He  wished  to 
say  that  the  paper,  whatever  it  proved,  did  not  prove 
that.' 

"  In  his  paper  presented  before  the  Insurance  and 
Actuarial  Society  of  Glasgow,  on  February  1,  1909, 
under  the  title  of  '  Some  Observations  on  the  Compara- 
tive Death  Rate  of  Abstainers  and  Non-Abstainers 
in  Life  Assurance  Companies,'  Dr.  Ebenezer  Dun- 
can remarked  that  '  every  person  who  is  acquainted 
with  the  average  insurer  is  aware  that  in  the  non- 
abstainers'  section  a  certain  proportion  of  persons  are 
known  to  drink  alcoholic  beverages  to  excess,  and  often 
to  the  extent  of  at  least  partial  intoxication.  These 
bad  lives  must  necessarily  bring  down  the  average  length 
of  life  in  that  section.'  He  estimated  that  this  element, 
together  with  those  who  habitually  overdrank,  would 
approximately  amount  to  20  to  25  per  cent  of  the  in- 
surers in  the  General  Section  of  insurance  offices,  and 


APPENDIX  257 

that  not  more  than  75  or  80  per  cent  of  the  members  of 
that  section  could  really  be  described  as  '  moderate 
drinkers.'  He  thought  there  was  a  great  field  for  some 
life  company  to  open  a  real  temperance  section,  to  be 
restricted  to  men  who  should  be  compelled  annually  to 
declare  that  they  did  not  exceed  a  conservative  daily 
average  of  from  1  to  1  %  glasses  of  whiskey  or  20 
to  30  ounces  of  beer,  according  as  their  occupations  were 
sedentary  or  outdoor  pursuits. 

"  In  his  paper  '  On  the  Rates  of  Death  Loss  among 
Total  Abstainers  and  Others,'  presented  before  the  Ac- 
tuarial Society  of  America  on  April  25,  1895,  Mr.  Emory 
McClintock,  the  distinguished  actuary  of  the  Mutual 
Life  of  New  York,  reviewed  that  company's  experience 
with  the  two  classes  from  1875  to  1889,  and  showed  that 
the  abstainers,  according  to  their  declarations  in  their 
applications  had  had  a  mortality  of  but  78  per  cent  of 
the  expected,  whereas  the  non-abstainers'  ratio  had  been 
96  per  cent,  if  the  experience  from  the  issuance  of  the 
policies  was  taken  into  account.  After  the  policies  had 
been  in  force  four  years,  the  difference  in  ratios  had 
narrowed  down  to  10  per  cent,  or  8  per  cent  in  the  case 
of  American-born  policyholders,  and  Mr.  McClintock 
was  satisfied  that  by  no  means  all  of  that  difference  was 
due  to  the  influence  of  alcohol.  In  the  case  of  beer  drink- 
ers he  thought  pretty  much  all  of  the  extra  loss  must  be 
attributed  to  constitutional  defects. 

"  In  the  discussion  of  his  paper,  which  followed  at  the 
meeting  of  the  Actuarial  Society  in  October,  1895,  Mr. 
John  B.  Lunger,  actuary  of  the  Prudential  Insurance 
Company  of  America,  took  issue  with  Mr.  McClintock  on 
this  latter  point,  and  showed  by  Dr.  John  S.  Billings's 
report  on  the  Vital  Statistics  of  New  York  and  Brook- 


258  APPENDIX 

lyn  in  1890  that,  despite  the  supposed  fact  that  alco- 
hol materially  increased  the  mortality  from  rheumatism 
and  Bright's  disease  and  liver  troubles,  the  mortality 
from  these  causes  among  the  beer-drinking  German  popu- 
lations of  both  cities  was  materially  lower  than  that  of 
the  whiskey-drinking  Irish  populations.  Mr.  Lunger 
thought  that  the  occupations  of  men  in  the  abstaining  and 
non-abstaining  classes  might  have  a  good  deal  to  do  with 
their  differing  mortalities.  Mr.  Walter  S.  Nichols,  actu- 
ary of  the  United  States  Industrial  Insurance  Company, 
of  Newark,  N.  J.,  was  inclined  to  agree  with  Mr.  Lunger 
as  to  the  probable  importance  of  occupation  as  one  factor 
figuring  in  the  different  mortality  of  the  two  classes. 

"  According  to  the  tabular  showings  of  the  Medico- 
Actuarial  Mortality  Investigation  of  the  experience  of 
43  American  and  Canadian  life  companies  in  the  years 
1885-1909,  the  policyholders  who,  according  to  their  own 
statements,  had  a  daily  drinking  average  of  two  or  more 
ounces  of  alcohol  had  a  mortality  of  186  per  cent  of  the 
expected,  as  compared  with  a  mortality  of  only  118  per 
cent  in  the  case  of  the  men  whose  daily  average  was  not 
supposed  to  exceed  two  glasses  of  beer  or  one  glass  of 
whiskey. 

"  These  figures  for  the  42,000  cases  in  all  43  com- 
panies are  at  decided  variance  with  those  of  the  North- 
western Mutual  Life's  experience  with  all  of  its  166,69'i! 
policies  written  between  1886  and  1895,  inclusive, 
brought  down  to  1900,  the  entire  difference  between  the 
death-rates  of  abstainers  and  all  non-abstainers  in  the 
case  of  this  fourth  largest  ordinary  life  company  in  the 
United  States  being  but  11.15  per  cent,  and  the  death- 
rate  of  the  drinkers  of  whiskey  and  other  spirits  being 
but  23  per  cent  higher  than  that  of  presumably  light 


APPENDIX  259 

drinkers,  those  who  claimed  to  drink  only  beer  and  wines. 
The  Northwestern  Mutual  having  always  been  excep- 
tionally careful  in  its  selection  of  risks,  and  having  up 
to  a  very  recent  date  exercised  special  precautions  against 
mortality  due  to  excessive  drinking,  it  would  seem  that 
its  experience  with  166,694  policies  written  by  one  com- 
pany, with  a  constantly-followed  uniform  policy  of 
selection,  is  fairly  entitled  to  greater  consideration  than 
the  experience  with  42,000  policies  in  the  case  of  no  less 
than  43  different  companies,  with  differing  policies  of 
selection,  especially  in  view  of  the  fact  that  the  hetero- 
geneous mortality  experience  thus  classified  apparently 
shows  a  vastly  greater  difference  between  the  death-rates 
of  self-avowed  light  and  slightly  heavier  drinkers  than 
does  the  Northwestern  Mutual's  experience  with  total 
abstainers  and  all  classes  of  non-abstainers. 

THE    SEEMINGLY   INEVITABLE   CONCLUSION 

"  In  a  word,  to  my  mind,  the  inevitable  conclusion  to 
which  this  abstract  of  actuarial  experience  and  opinion 
leads  is,  that  the  probable  difference  between  the  death- 
rates  of  abstaining  and  non-abstaining  life  insurance 
policyholders  is  still  utterly  problematical,  but  that 
the  tabulated  experience  of  the  Northwestern  Mutual 
Life,  now  for  the  first  time  published  in  detail,  comes 
much  closer  to  an  approximation  of  the  actual  difference 
than  have  any  other  figures  previously  published.  As  to 
the  probable  difference  between  the  death-rates  of  total 
abstainers  and  moderately-drinking  non-abstainers  out- 
side of  the  realm  of  life  insurance  experience,  of  course 
there  is  no  sound  basis  whatsoever  even  for  mere 
guesses." 


THE  ANNUAL  PER  CAPITA  CONSUMPTION  IN 
A  NUMBER  OF  FOREIGN  COUNTRIES  OF 
WHISKEY,  BEER,  AND  WINE  DURING  THE 
YEARS  1906-191O: 


WHISKEY 
COUNTRIES  (LITER  50%) 

Norway    2.87 

Sweden  6.8 

Denmark    10.44 

Finland   2.31 

European  Russia 6.09 

German  Empire 7.29 

Netherlands 7.16 

Belgium   5.47 

Great  Britain  and 

Ireland    4.17 

France    8.82 

Spain    3.24 

Portugal   1.04 

Switzerland 3.82 

Italy    1.02 

Austria-Hungary   ....  8.20 

Roumania    5.50 

Bulgaria    0.62 

Servia  8.10 

Greece    1.68 

British  South  Africa.  1.91 

Australia 4.04 

New  Zealand    3.97 

Japan   0.60 

United  States 5.51 

Canada    4.23 

Brazil    

Argentine    8.44 

Chili    


pttre 

BEER 

WINE 

ALCOHOL 

(LITER) 

(uter) 

(LITER) 

18.43 

1.16 

2.37 

23.8 

0.5 

4.9 

36.16 

1.50 

6.82 

7.82 

0.61 

1.56 

6.52 

0.86 

3.41 

104.98 

4.76 

7.47 

27.28 

1.55 

5.01 

220.82 

5.16 

10.58 

123.06 

1.23 

9.67 

71.66 

144.00 

22.93 

84.05 

69.50 

14.02 

0.95 

92.58 

12.59 

69.01 

55.65 

13.71 

1.63 

128.58 

17.29 

34.16 

19.84 

7.68 

2.39 

23.62 

5.20 

3.48 

25.74 

3.02 

3.68 

20.21 

.   •   .   • 

0.82 

100.04 

13.87 

5.71 

3.76 

1.85 

55.56 

2.33 

5.65 

44.78 

0.94 

4.61 

0.47 

15.14 

2.36 

76.25 

2.37 

6.89 

22.61 

0.42 

3.31 

1.44 

4.71 

3.14 

41.56 

10.2  i 

12.26 

91.24 

The  above  table  was  compiled  by  Dr.  J.  Gabrielsson 
on  behalf  of  the  Swedish  Temperance  Committee.     It  is 


APPENDIX  261 

probably  as  near  an  approach  to  accurate  statistics  of 
consumption  as  can  be  obtained  at  the  present  time. 
In  a  number  of  instances,  particularly  in  regard  to  some 
of  the  less  important  countries,  the  calculations  are  not 
uniformly  for  the  five-year  period  shown  in  the  table, 
and  in  some  cases  other  drinks  than  those  specially 
mentioned  are  included.  Thus  in  the  case  of  France, 
the  quantity  of  cider  used  is  included  under  beer. 


BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTES 

In  spite  of  its   enormous  proportions,  the  literature 
dealing  with  the  manifold  phases  of  the  alcohol  question 
contains  few  works  of  permanent  value  that  are  popu- 
larly  useful.      By   this   is    meant   works   that   combine 
scientific  knowledge  with  an  impartial  examination  into 
the  present-day  status  of  the  drink  problem  in  one  or 
more  countries,  and  attempt  a  constructive  program  of 
reform.    Unfortunately,  some  of  the  most  recent  and  best 
publications  of  this  kind  are  not  accessible  in  English. 
Of  late  years  no  specially  noteworthy  and  authoritative 
books  of  a  general  character  have  appeared  either  in  the 
United  States  or  in  England.    Among  the  older  publica- 
tions in  English  the  following  deserve  special  mention: 
The  Works  of  the  Committee  of  Fifty.    Published 
by  Houghton  Mifflin  Company.     The  Liquor  Prob- 
lem in  its  Legislative  Aspects;  Economic  Aspects 
of  the  Liquor  Problem;  Substitutes  for  the  Saloon; 
Physiological   Aspects  of  the  Liquor  Problem; — 2 
vols.     The  Liquor  Problem;  A  Summary  of  Investi- 
gations Conducted  by  the  Committee  of  Fifty,  1893- 
1903. 

The  Temperance  Problem  and  Social  Reform. 
By  Joseph  Rowntree  and  Arthur  Sherwell.  Hod- 
der  &  Stoughton,  London,  9th  ed.,  1901.  Contains 
in  addition  to  a  presentation  and  constructive  sug- 
gestions of  the  British  drink  question  an  excellent 
study  of  the  American  experiments  in  liquor  legis- 
lation. 

263 


BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTES  263 

Of  new  works  in  foreign  languages  first  rank  should 
be  given  the  following: 

Report  of  the  Norwegian  Alcohol  Commission. 
In  7  parts.  Christiania,  1913-1915.  A  most  com- 
plete and  thorough  study  of  the  legislative,  social, 
and   economic   aspects    of   drink. 

Report  of  the  Swedish  Temperance  Committee. 
In  several  parts.  Stockholm,  1912.  Similar  in 
scope  to  the  report  of  the  Norwegian  Alcohol  Com- 
mission. 

Alkoholen  och  SamhdUet.  Stockholm,  1912. 
This  work  prepared  under  official  auspices  by  a 
committee  of  the  Swedish  Medical  Society  contains 
probably  the  best  popular  study  of  the  socially  in- 
jurious effects  of  the  misuse  of  alcohol,  together 
with  proposals  for  reform. 

Alkoholfragan  fran  Medicinsk  Synpunkt.  By 
Dr.  Ulrik  Quensel,  Professor  of  Pathology  and 
Hygiene  at  the  University  of  Upsala.  Two 
volumes.  Stockholm,  1913.  His  studies  of  the 
pathology  of  alcoholism  embrace  a  most  searching 
examination  of  the  extensive  scientific  literature; 
it  nevertheless  contains  many  observations  of  a  gen- 
eral nature  and  is  intended  for  popular  use. 

La  Lutte  Contre  L'Alcoolisme.  By  Dr.  L.  Viaud 
and  H.-A.  Vasnier.  Paris,  1907.  Two  memoirs 
awarded  prizes  by  L' Academic  des  Sciences, 
Morales,   et   Politiques. 

For  bibliographical  references  the  following  works 
may  be  consulted: 

Rosenfeld:  Der  Einfluss  des  Alkohols  auf  den 
Organismus.     Wiesbaden  (Bergmann),  1901. 


264  BIBLIOGRAPHICAL  NOTES 

Abderhalden :  Bibliographie  der  gesamten  tvis- 
senschaftlichen  Litteratur  iiber  den  Alkohol  u.d. 
Alkoholismus.  Berlin  och  Wien,  (Urban  u. 
Schwarzenberg),  1904. 

Hoppe:  Die  Tatsachen  iiber  den  Alkohol.  Ein 
Handbuch  der  Wissenschaft  vom  Alkohol.  4  Aufl. 
Munchen  (Reinhardt),  1912. 

Among  the  studies  of  the  Gothenberg  System,  in  addi- 
tion to  the  many  special  articles  found  in  the  periodical 
literature,  mention  may  be  made  of: 

Public  Control  of  the  Liquor  Traffic.  By  Joseph 
Rowntree  and  Arthur  Sherwell.  London,  Grant 
Richards,   1903. 

The  Gothenberg  System  of  Liquor  Traffic.  By 
E.  R.  L.  Gould.  Fifth  special  report  of  the  Com- 
missioner of  Labor.  Washington,  1893.  Out  of 
print. 

Massachusetts  Commissioners'  Report  on  the  Nor- 
wegian System  to  the  Legislature  of  Massachusetts, 
1894.     Out  of  print. 

For  a  selected  bibliography  of  the  older  general  litera- 
ture, see 

Economic  Aspects  of  the  Liquor  Problem.  Com- 
mittee of  Fifty.  Houghton  Mifflin  Company.  Bos- 
ton, 1899. 


INDEX 


Aarrestad,  Gov.  S.,  194. 

Absinthe,  abolition,  156;  pro- 
hibited in  Italy,  172;  man- 
ufactures of,  156. 

Abuse  of  alcohol,  antiquity 
of,  2;  extent  of,  3;  in  In- 
dia, 2. 

Accident  statistics,  46-8. 

Ach,  10. 

Actuaries,  views  on  relative 
death    rates,    253. 

Alabama,  historical,  73-4;  and 
liquor   interests,   118. 

Alberta,  reform  in,  181. 

Alcohol  and  Crime,  49;  and 
degeneracy,  18;  and  eco- 
nomic distress,  42;  a  so- 
cial disease,  3;  nutrition,  6; 
small  quantities  effects  of, 
7. 

Alcohol- free  races,  1. 

Alkoholen   och  Samhdllet 

Alkoholfragdn,  Fran  Medi- 
cinsk  Synpunkt.  Quensel, 
20. 

Alcoholic  beverages  all  harm- 
ful, 219. 

Alcoholism  and  disease,  30; 
unknown   factors,  60. 

Alcohology,  2. 

Algeria,   2. 

American    Saloon,  the,   216. 

American  Tavern,  the,  208. 

American  Underwriters,  the, 
253. 

Anderson,  W.  H.,  122. 

Annual  consumption,  whiskey, 
beer,    wine,    1906-10,    260. 

Anti-saloon  league,  77,  119. 


Aperitifs  in  France,  158. 
Appendix,   253. 
Arizona,    historical,    75. 
Arkansas,    historical,    75. 
Arterial  sclerosis,  36. 
Aschaffenburg,    10,    12. 
Atlantic,  The,  v. 
Antiquity  of  the  danger,  2. 
Auburn,    Me.,    conditions    in, 

213. 
Authority,   the    appeal    to,    5. 
Australia,    Reform    in,    174; 

requirements   in,   215. 
Austria-Hungary,    reform   in, 

172-3. 

Bark,   M.,  in   Duma,   151. 

Beer  and  wines,  v;  alcohol  in 
Russia,  149;  annual  con- 
sumption,   foreign,    260. 

Belgium,  use  of  alcohol  in, 
17;  reform  in,  173;  law  of 
1912,   173;   licenses,   173. 

Bertillon  on  alcoholic  con- 
sumption in  France,  157. 

Bezzola,   20. 

Bibliographical  notes,  262. 

Biennial  local  option  elections, 
215. 

Blacklisting  alcoholics,  243. 

Blindness  of  advocates,  3. 

Boston,  conditions,  213;  li- 
censing  boards,  230 

Branthwaite,  Dr.  R.  W.,  50, 
57-8 

Bratt  and  Andr6e  system, 
199-202 

Budget  Commission  of  the 
Duma,  150. 


366 


266 


INDEX 


Bunge,  20. 

Busch,  on  eyesight,  11,  12. 

Canada,  reform  in,  179. 
Causative    factors,   62. 
Ceylon,  1. 

Chicago,    conditions,    213. 
Children  taught  effects,  4. 
Churches  stand  aloof,  120. 
Cider,  hard,  222. 
Cirrhosis  of  the  liver,  37. 
Cities    reject    prohibition,   94. 
Coercion,    115. 
Colorado,  historical,  75. 
Committee   of   Fifty,   137. 
Committee  of  Fourteen  in  N. 

Y.,   228. 
Company     system,     the,     167, 

246-9 
Compensation    for    privileges, 

136-7. 
Concealment    and    circumven- 
tion, 71. 
Connecticut,  historical,  71. 
Consent  of  governed,   115. 
Constitutional        Amendment, 

125-7. 
Constructive    temperance    re- 
form, 206. 
Consumption,  per  capita,  78; 

foreign,   260. 
Contradictory     attitudes     to- 
wards   principles,    217. 
Control,  retail  traffic,  by  pro- 
ducers, 240. 
Corruption  of  officials,  113. 
County  local  option,  217. 
Courts,  pressure  on,  130;  de- 
cisions in  Iowa,  221. 
Credo  of  prohibition,  219. 
Crime  and  alcohol,  49. 
Crux     of    liquor     legislation, 

supposed,    229. 
Cyrenaica,  2. 
Czar's  Ukase,  143. 

Dakotas,    the,    historical,    69, 
71. 


Danger  diflFers  with  kind  of 
drink,   235. 

Death  rates  of  drinkers  and 
abstainers,    253. 

Degeneracy  and  alcohol,  18-22. 

Delaware,  historical,  71. 

Dementia  praecox,  23. 

Denatured  alcohol,  146. 

Denmark,  26;  reform  in, 
181-2. 

Denver,  94. 

Deputies  of  West  Virginia, 
129. 

Desire  for  alcohol,  its  cause, 
100-103;  growth  of,   17-8. 

Diagrammatic   statistics,   4. 

Dispensary  system,  73,  248. 

Distillation,   art  of,   1. 

Distilled  liquors  to  be  re- 
pressed, 238. 

Distilling,  illicit,  97-8. 

Distress,  economic,  42. 

Disease  and  alcoholism,  30. 

Dogma  of  universal  prohibi- 
tion, 5. 

Drink  Reform,  Experiments, 
86;  foreign  countries,  141; 
historical,  68;  national  pro- 
hibition, 94;  present  condi- 
tions, 76. 

Drink-selling,  a  city  problem, 
95;  methods,  207;  opinions 
of,  227. 

Druggists'  activities  in  Russia, 
150. 

Duma,  Budget  Commission, 
150-2. 

"  Easy  money,"  97. 

Economic  Distress,  42. 

Egypt,  2. 

Elections,  recent,  94. 

Epilepsy,  21. 

Essentials  of  progressive  re- 
form,  232. 

European  temperance  legisla- 
tion, 224. 

Evasion  of  laws,  90,  91. 


INDEX 


267 


Exact  investigation,  4. 
Experiment  with  alcohol,   12; 

with  prohibition,  86. 
Extent  of  abuse,  3,  56. 
Eyesight,  Busch  on,  11,  12. 

Fanaticism,  v. 

Fatigue  from  the  economic 
standpoint,  48. 

Feeble-mindedness,   21. 

Federal  Government,  as 
leader,  237;  income  from 
liquor,  224;  spirit  legisla- 
tion, 223;  quality  of  law, 
224. 

Fernald,  Dr.  Guy  G.,  54. 

Finland,  reform  in,  142,  154; 
prohibitory  laws,  154;  li- 
cense laws,  154-5;  liquor 
traflBc,   155. 

Florence,   P.    Sargant,   48. 

Food  value  of  alcohol,  6. 

Force   or    persuasion,    122 

Forel,  A.,  6,  20. 

France,  absinthe,  156;  Acad- 
emy of  Medicine,  159;  al- 
coholic habit  in,  157;  aperi- 
tifs, 158;  effect  of  war,  155; 
endurance,  17;  law  of  1915, 
161;  licenses,  157;  Moham- 
medans, 159 ;  National 
Council  of  Women,  160; 
negroes,  159;  peasant  man- 
ufacture, 168;  reform  in, 
155;  soldiers'  rations,  161; 
statistics,    157. 

Franklin,   Fabian,   123. 

Frontier,  Drink  on  the,  208. 

Furer,  10. 

Gabrielson,  Dr.  J.,  tables, 
260. 

George,  Lloyd-D.,   162 

Georgia,   historical,    73-74. 

Germany,  abuse  of  spirituous 
drinks,  170;  aids  to  so- 
briety, 171;  distillers  re- 
stricted,    169;     legislation. 


170;  reform  in,  168;  So- 
ciety against  the  abuse  of 
spirituous  drinks,  170;  state 
authority,  170;  use  of  al- 
cohol, 17;  war  measures, 
168-170. 

Gothenburg  system  in  Eng- 
land, 165.  See  "  Company 
System." 

Government  and  prohibition, 
111. 

Graham,   Stephen,   144. 

Great  Britain,  agitation,  162; 
licensing,  164 ;  Public 
House  Trust,  165-8;  "tied" 
houses,  164;  war  measures, 
162. 

Greece,  80. 

Grey,   Lord,   166. 

Gruber,  20, 

Guyot,  M.  Yves,  141,  160. 

Hadley,  A.  T.,  Pres.,   115. 

Hallucinations,  28. 

Harmless  drinks,  exclusion  of, 
220. 

Hartwich,  Dr.,   1. 

Hatred  of  alcohol,  220. 

Havre  dockers,  159. 

Helenius,  20. 

Hereditary  influence  of  alco- 
holism,  5. 

High  license  and  restriction, 
224-5. 

Hildebrandt,  on  will  power, 
10,  11. 

Hindoos,   17. 

Holland,   reform   in,   183-4. 

Hoist,   Axel,   12,  84,   194. 

Home   distilling,   97. 

Hours   for  drink  selling,  241. 

Hungarians,   80. 

Iceland,  reform  in,  184-6. 
Idaho,  historical,  75. 
Idiocy,  21. 

Ilicit  distilling,  97;  in  Russia, 
145. 


268 


INDEX 


Illinois,  historical,  71. 

Immigrant  as  factor,  79. 

Immorality  of  manufacture, 
106-8. 

India,  1,  2. 

Indiana,  historical,  71;  laws 
on  intoxicants,  221. 

Indians,  illicit  traffic  with, 
207. 

Inebriety,  extent  of,  56. 

Infantile  mortality,  21. 

Inhibition  of  function,  16. 

Insincere    majorities,    116. 

Insurance  statistics,  40-42. 

Intensive  investigation  needed, 
66 

Internal  Revenue  statistics, 
83. 

International  Committee  for 
the  Scientific  study  of  the 
Alcohol   Question,   159. 

Iowa,  historical,  71,  75;  court 
decisions,  221. 

Ireland,  company  system  in, 
167. 

Islamites,  1. 

Italy,  79;  absinthe  prohibited, 
172;  law  of  1915,  172;  li- 
censes, 172;  reform  in,  171; 
wine  drinking,  171. 

Judges,  pressure  on,  130,  131. 

Kansas,     historical,     69,     71; 

dry,  83. 
Karaulov,  A.,  in  Duma,  151. 
Karlsson,    32. 
Kidney,  diseases   of,  36-7. 
Klinzhov,  E.  S.,  in  Duma,  151. 
Kraepelin,  10,  14,  15. 

Lack  of  studies  in  casu,  3. 

Laitinen,   20. 

Law,    the    kind    needed,    109; 

non-enforcement     of,     131- 

40. 
Lawlessness,   209-10. 
Legislation,  221-4. 


Legrain,   20. 

Leipzig  investigation,  33. 

Lewiston,  Me.,  conditions,  213. 

Licensing  authorities,  229 ; 
boards,  229;  laws  of  Amer- 
ica, 210;  policies,  223;  rela- 
tive value  of  systems,  226; 
systems    preferable,    237-9. 

Liquor;  Interests,  in  politics, 
209;  practices  of,  113;  sell- 
ing by  monopoly,  246-7; 
taxation   of   traffic,   223. 

Local  Boards,  229. 

Local  Government,  perversion 
of,  209. 

Local  Option,  73,  211-22; 
privileges  upheld,  244-6. 

Lloyd-George,  162. 

Luxuries,  statistics  of,  43. 

Maine,  the  Maine  Idea,  his- 
torical, 69,  71. 

Maniac  conditions,  23. 

Malacca,  1. 

Malt-brewed  drinks  excluded, 
220;  favored  by  Norway, 
236. 

Manitoba,  reform  in,  180. 

Massachusetts,  historical,  71; 
Reformatory  for  Males,  54; 
Reformatory  for  Women, 
54;  State  Board  of  Insan- 
ity, investigation,  24. 

Masses  not  moved  by  scien- 
tific conceptions,  107. 

Medicine,  5. 

Mental  Disease,  23. 

Michigan,    historical,    71. 

Mississippi,  historical,   74. 

Moderate  use,  10,  253;  does 
not  lead  to  intemperance, 
18. 

Monopoly,  for  public  good, 
246. 

Moral  suasion,  208. 

Morocco,  2. 

Mortality  among  drinkers  and 
abstainers,  253-7;  by  coun- 


INDEX 


269 


tries,  40;  rural  and  urban, 

39,  42. 
Muhammedan  habits,  2,  17. 
Myers,  Gustavus,  46. 

National  Council  of  French 
Women,  160;  prohibition, 
94. 

Nantes  Labor  Exchange,  158. 

Nebraska,  historical,  71,  72. 

Negroes,  74, 

New  Brunswick,  reform  in, 
180. 

New  Hampshire,  historical, 
71. 

New  South  Wales,  reform  in, 
174. 

New  Zealand,  reform  in,  177. 

Non-intoxicants  excluded,  220. 

North  Carolina,  historical,  73, 
74. 

North  Dakota,  definitions, 
221. 

Norway,  Alcohol  Commission, 
vi,  26,  84,  194-200;  Bratt 
and  Andr6e  system,  199; 
Denmark  compared,  26,  27; 
malt    beverages,    236. 

Norway  and  Sweden,  Com- 
pany system,  191;  Gothen- 
burg system,  188;  law  of 
1855,  188;  law  of  1904,  191; 
licenses,  192;  reform  in, 
187-205 ;  samlag  system, 
193. 

Nova  Scotia,  reform  in,  179. 

Novoselski,   Dr.,   146. 

Nutritive  values  of  alcohol,  6. 

Objectives  in  law-making, 
234. 

Ohio,  historical,  72;  State 
Board,  230 

Oklahoma,  historical,  74. 

Ontario,  reform  in,  180. 

Opium  in   Russia,   153. 

Opinion,  expressed  at  inter- 
vals, 216. 


Oregon,  historical,  75. 
Ovize,  on  mortality,  39. 

Patent   Medicines,  239. 

Patrick,  T.  W.,   100. 

Pearson,  Karl,  5. 

Pennsylvania,  licensing  sys- 
tem, 231. 

Percentages  of  alcohol  in 
drinks,  220-4,  236. 

Personal  Rights,  116. 

Persia,  2. 

Persuasion  versus  force,  112. 

Perversion  of  Temperance 
Reform,   108. 

Petrograd  Municipal  Commis- 
sion, 150. 

Petrograd  Ophthalmological 
Society   report,   146. 

Phelps,  E.  B.,  Appendix,  253. 

Physiology,   5. 

Physiological  effects,  4. 

Pneumonia,  32,  33. 

Police  Corruption,  93;  dis- 
trust of,  129;  ofScials  and 
power,  229. 

Politics  and  drink-selling, 
209;  and  local  option,  218; 
and  reform,  87-8;  corrup- 
tion of,  113;  devices  in  local 
option,  217;  "pull,"  89; 
State  Boards,  230. 

Popular  opposition,  96. 

Portland,  Ore.,  94. 

Portland,  Me.,  saloons  closed, 
94,    138. 

Practical  temperance  policy, 
a,  3. 

Prejudice  of  opinion,  v,  111. 

Present   conditions,  81. 

Prince  Edward  Island,  re- 
form in,  179. 

Principles,  contradictory  atti- 
tude  on,   217. 

Producers,  control  by,  240. 

Progressive  Reform,  the 
essentials,  232. 


270 


INDEX 


Prohibition    attitude    towards 

administration,   128. 
Propaganda  in  schools,  4;   in 

public,  4. 
Psychology       of      relaxation, 

Patrick,   100. 
Psychopathic  diagnosis,  64. 
Public,  the  inarticulate,  233. 
Pure  Food  Law,  222. 

Quebec,  reform  in,  180. 
Queensland,  reform  in,  176. 
Quensel,  Ulrik,  vi,  14,  20,  21, 
39;  on  mortality,  39. 

Raines  Law  of  N.  Y.,  228. 

Reform  in  Foreign  Countries, 
141;  in  the  U.  S.  A.,  68; 
one-sided,  danger  of,  4;  es- 
sentials of,  232. 

Reformers'  errors,  211;  for 
hire,  233;  irresponsible,  250. 

Reinach,  Joseph,  160. 

Relaxation,  need  of,  100-1. 

Retailer,  a  free  agent,  240. 

Relative  Death  rates  of  ab- 
stainers and  moderate 
drinkers,  253. 

Reproductive  organs,  20-1. 

Restrictive  license  system, 
226. 

Revenue,  desire  for,  234;  and 
liquor  tax,  224. 

Rhode   Island,   69. 

Ribot,  Alexandre,  159. 

Rosemann,   Dr.,   7. 

Rowntree,   84. 

RUdin,   10. 

Rules  and  restrictions,  240-2. 

Russia,  98;  and  Finland,  142; 
beer  and  wines,  149;  eva- 
sion, 145;  Government  man- 
ufacture of  alcohol,  152; 
opium,  153;  reform  in,  142; 
revenue   statistics,   145. 

Byetch,  the;  Petrograd,  149- 
151. 

Rygg,  Dr.  N.,  59. 


Saleeby,   20. 

Saloon,  80,  89;  and  country 
districts,  95;  and  high  li- 
cense, 226 ;  anti-saloon 
league,  17,  119;  a  social  in- 
stitution, 242;  its  evolution, 
206-11;  resentment  against, 
118;  responsible  hands,  in, 
241;  rules  for,  241;  substi- 
tute for,  242. 

Santesson,  Dr.,  8. 

Saskatchewan,  reform  in,  181, 

Scharffenberg,  Dr.  J.,  26. 

Schnidtmann,   10. 

Scotland,  company  system, 
167. 

Seattle,  94. 

Sherwell,  Arthur,  M.  P.,  84, 
167. 

Short  cut  to  virtue,  114. 

Small  quantities,  effects  of,  7. 

Smith,  10. 

South  Australia,  reform  in, 
175. 

South  Carolina,  historical,  73, 
75. 

Southern  States,  historical,  73. 

Social  aspects  of  drink,  1. 

Social-hygienic  problem,  2. 

Socialist   Party,   75. 

Specht,  on  hearing,  11. 

Spokane,   94. 

Standards  of  Public  Morality, 
by   Hadley,   115. 

State  Boards,  230. 

State  Prohibition,  75. 

Statistical  material  available, 
25. 

Statistics,  5,  26,  43,  78;  con- 
sumption, 260;  death-rates, 
253. 

Statutes   and  repression,  210. 

Stockholm,  regulations  in, 
201-3. 

Substitution  of  noxious  liq- 
uors, 220. 

Suicide,  29,  30. 


INDEX 


271 


Sumptuary  legislation,  112- 
115. 

Sweden,  97;  Swedish  Medical 
Society,  vi,  84;  its  system, 
243 ;  Temperance  Commit- 
tee, 8,  22,  200-4;  215;  table 
of  per  capita  consumption, 
260. 

Switzerland,  reform  in,  186-7. 

Syndicalist  declaration  in 
France,    158. 

Syria,  2. 

Tacoma,  94. 

Tasmania,  reform  in,  176. 

Taxation  of  alcoiiol,  222;  on 
quantity  rather  than  on 
kind,  223;  to  promote  tem- 
perance,   237. 

Tennessee,  74. 

Thunberg,  16. 

Trade  opposition,  113. 

Travelling  exhibits,  4. 

Tripolitaine,  the,  2. 

Tuaregs,  of  the  Sahara,  2. 

Tuberculosis,  33-6. 

Tunis,  2. 

Turks  of  Asia  Minor,  2. 

Types  of  alcoholic  persons,  3. 

Tyranny  of  social  coercion, 
114. 

Underwriters,  American,  253. 

Unholy    alliances,    109. 

United  States  Census  Report 
on  Insane,  24. 

Unknown  Factors  in  Alcohol- 
ism, 60. 


Untruths       of       Temperance 

Doctrine,  3. 
Urban    States,   opposition   in, 

95. 
Use  and  abuse,  17,  18. 
Ussing,   Dr.    S.,    181. 

Vermont,  historical,  71;  elec- 
tion in   1916,  217. 

Victoria,   reform   in,   177. 

Virtue,   short  cut   to,   114. 

Virginia,  historical,  75;  two- 
year  limit,  216. 

Vituperation,   2. 

Vodka,  97;  monopoly,  136, 
142. 

Votes  for  morality,  214. 

Vogt,   10. 

War  measures,  141;  the  Great 
War,  17. 

Washington  State,  75;  bars 
all  liquors,   220. 

West  Australia,  reform  in, 
177. 

West  Virginia,  historical,  75; 
present  conditions,  83;  dep- 
uties, 128,  129;  malt  liquors, 
220. 

Western  cities  and  local  op- 
tion, 219. 

Weinberg,  21. 

Whiskey,  annual  consumption, 
foreign,  260. 

Wine-drinking,  238-9 ;  con- 
sumption,  foreign,  260. 

Women  loose,  241. 


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Sherman,    Sheridan,    McClellan,    Meade,    Lee,    "Stonewall" 
Jackson,  Joseph  E.  Johnston. 

"  Very  interesting  .  .  .  much  sound  originality  of  treatment,  and  the 
style  is  very  clear." — Sf'ringiield  Republican. 

JOHN  ERSKINE'S  LEADING  AMERICAN  NOVEUSTS 

Charles  Brockden  Brown,  Cooper,  Simms,  Hawthorne, 
Mrs.  Stowe,  and  Bret  Harte. 

"  He  makes  his  study  of  these  novelists  all  the  more  striking  because 
of  their  contrasts  of  style  and  their  varied  purpose.  .  .  .  Well  worth 
any  amount  of  time  we  may  care  to  spend  upon  them." — Boston  Tran- 
script. 

W.  M.  PAYNE'S   LEADING  AMERICAN  ESSAYISTS 

A  General  Introduction  dealing  with  essay  writing  in  Amer- 
ica, and  biographies  of  Irving,  Emerson,  Thoreau,  and  George 
William  Curtis. 

■*  It  is  necessary  to  know  only  the  name  of  the  author  of  this  work 
4o  be  assured  of  its  literary  excellence."- — Literary  Digest. 

LEADING   AMERICAN   MEN  OF   SCIENCE 

Edited  by  President  David  Starr  Jordan. 

Count  Rumford  and  Josi.^h  Willard  Gibbs,  by  E.  E.  Slosson; 
Alexander  Wilson  and  Audubon,  by  Witmer  Stone;  Silliman,  by 
Daniel  C.  Gilman;  Joseph  Henry,  by  Simon  Newcomb;  Louis  Agassiz 
and  Spencer  Fullerton  Baird,  by  Charles  F.  Holder;  Jeffries  Wy.man, 
by  B.  G.  Wilder;  Asa  Gray,  by  John  M.  Coulter;  James  Dwight  Dana, 
by  William  North  Rice;  Marsh,,  by  Geo.  Bird  Grinnell;  Edward 
Drinker  Cope,  by  Marcus  Benjamin;  Simon  Newcomb,  by  Marcus 
Benjamin;  George  Brown  Goode,  by  D.  S.  Jordan;  Henry  Augustus 
Rowland,  by  Ira  Remsen;  William   Keith   Brooks,  by  E.  A.  Andrews. 

GEORGE  ILES'S  LEADING   AMERICAN   INVENTORS 

By  the  author  of  "  Inventors  at  Work,"  etc.  Colonel  John  Stevens 
(screw-propeller,  etc.);  his  son,  Robert  (T-rail,  etc.);  Fulton;  Erics- 
son; Whitney;  Blanchard  (lathe);  McCormick;  Howe;  Goodyear; 
Morse;  Tilghman  (paper  from  wood  and  sand  blast);  Sholes  (type, 
writer);    and   Mergenthaler    (linotype). 

Other  Volumes  covering  Lawyers,  Poets,  Statesmen, 
Editors,  Explorers,  etc. ,  arranged  for.   Leaflet  on  application. 

HENRY     HOLT    AND     COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS  (ix'ia)  NEW  YORK 


University  of  California 

SOUTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 

405  Hllgard  Avenue,  lu)s  Angeles,  CA  90024-1388 

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from  which  It  was  borrowed. 


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